The Final Battle
by labellemagique
Summary: Buffy is in Scotland when she hears the news of what happened in LA. Now it's up to her, her friends, and the slayers to save the city of LA because they are going to need as much help as they can with the upcoming apocalypse.
1. It has been a long year

It has been a long year…

I guess it all started last May after the Hellmouth was closed and all these new slayers were called. Once Sunnydale became nothing more that a large crater we spent a few days in one of the neighboring towns resting, regrouping, and going to the mall. Since the destruction had been so widespread, everyone had been curious as to what exactly had happened down in the hellmouth after they had left. I hadn't really spoken about what took place between Spike and me down there afterwards, but it's not like it was really any of their business anyway. The Hellmouth was closed, the big evil was thwarted, what more exactly did they want. Eventually though people began to ask questions. Everyone kept asking, "What happened to Spike? "And "Where exactly did you get that amulet anyway?" I of course told them what happened to Spike (omitting the last few words that I spoke to him… that was private and none of their business anyway), and I told them that I got the Amulet from Angel.

Of course that wasn't good enough because that led to "Who is Angel?" from the potentials… oh sorry! New slayers… and Robin (as you can imagine that was a fun conversation), and from my friends it was "Where did Angel get the amulet? Is it a trustworthy source? Can Angel be trusted?" I didn't have the answers to all of their questions so I called Angel to let him know what had happened, and to find out more information about the amulet. That's when we found out about Wolfram and Hart. From then on Giles was all "You never should have used that amulet! You don't know what could have happened! Angel can NOT be trusted! Do you hear me?" I really didn't know what he was on about until Giles told us that Wolfram and Hart is this evil law firm. Although I'm still not sure what is so evil about them, other than being lawyers.

Anyway, it was right around then that we started making plans for the future. Somehow we have to tell thousands of girls around the world, that they are vampire slayers, and train them in their new abilities. Those girls would literally be walking targets since many vampires and demons can either smell or sense a slayer. Until they were trained, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves very easily. Giles thought it would be best to set up base camps around the world run by "watchers" and then of course have the main watchers council as headquarters back in England. It was a good plan, but we couldn't find a big enough headquarters in England so we set up base camp in Scotland, with an office for the council near their old headquarters in London. He decided that Xander would go to Africa to set up a base camp there before coming back to help me, and I would go to the new headquarters in Scotland. Willow would go to South America to aid the coven in finding all of the new slayers, Robin and Faith would go to Cleveland, and Andrew volunteered to go to Rome. Dawn would of course be going to college here in California. Each of the new slayers that had worked with us in Sunnydale would also get assigned a post. A few of them came with me, Kennedy of course went with Willow, a few went with Faith and Robin, Rona originally went with Andrew, Vi went with Xander, and the rest went with Giles.

Giles also decided that now that there were so many slayers in the world that I might be in danger. He decided that there should be three of me: One in Rome, one underground (literally!), and one being the real me. The one underground would be responsible for reporting information about the underground kingdoms back up top, and the one in Rome would be a decoy for the real me. No one, other than us, would know that the Buffy in Rome wasn't me. Before I left Giles had me call Angel and tell him at least part of the plan. He wanted to through Wolfram and Hart off are trail as much as possible and he knew that Angel would believe almost anything I told him. I hated lying to Angel, but at the time it was necessary. I wasn't sure Giles was right about not being able to trust him, but I did know that as CEO of Wolfram and Hart Angel was basically in the spotlight and that evil things would be keeping tabs on him. If HE was convinced that I was in Rome, then it wouldn't take much to convince the other evil things that I was in Rome. I warned Giles though that if for some reason Angel came to visit me in Rome it wouldn't take much for him to figure out that something was up, so they would need some sort of a plan to deal with that.

I've been in Scotland with Xander now for a while. He came to work with me after only about a month in Africa and left Vi in charge of that base camp. Apparently it hadn't taken very long to set up the base there since they were already pretty used to the idea of watchers and slayers over there. After he left Africa, Xander spent a few weeks staying with Dracula for some reason (which by the way I will never understand that ewww!), but otherwise Xander has been spending his time helping me. It's kind of nice to be back with old friends since none of my other friends are around much, and because we have all these cool gadgets and stuff, but it is also kind of lonely. Which is odd… because I live with at least 30 other people, sometimes more… I shouldn't be lonely… but I am. Everyone keeps talking about this amazing connection that they all feel. Even Xander can feel it…. And he is not even a slayer! I, on the other hand, feel nothing. I am completely alone. I don't understand it.

I don't know much about what has been going on with the others. Giles has been in research mode big time, especially after the whole Twilight symbol surfaced. Willow has been busy playing mega Wicca all over the world after a short stint in South America, and she still won't talk much about the past several months. Apparently Kennedy died for a short time (which might have something to do with Willow being all secretive all of a sudden). Andrew has been busy in Rome convincing the world that the other me is the real me. He's been the busiest; he even has a crazy slayer named Dana who surfaced at a loony bin in L.A. I wanted to go get her myself (I didn't like the idea of trusting Andrew with something so important), but Giles reminded me that Angel thinks that I'm in Rome, and if I stopped by for a visit in LA it might compromise that story. Giles wanted Dana to come here to Scotland afterwards, but Andrew insisted that she stay with him. He told Giles why, and apparently was able to convince him, but neither one of them will tell me why. For God sakes! I know that he is trying to hide something from me, but what could that crazy girl possibly know that I shouldn't.

The other me has been busy partying hard in Rome and dating some guy called "the immortal". Apparently Andrew set that up. He said that it would be hilarious for some reason. Robin has been busy running slayer central on the hellmouth in Cleveland after Faith apparently decided that it was too hard to work with others…typical Faith… She still lives in Cleveland, but she's too busy doing the solo act now to care about anyone but herself. I think that's everyone… oh wait… Dawn! Yes! How could I forget her?! … Dawn spent the first few months at college, and after sleeping with a Thricewise (although she won't admit it to me). She is now a giant and living with us in Scotland until Willow can figure out how to make her people sized again.


	2. Chosen

On May 19, 2003 my life changed completely forever… and it only took a second…

I don't actually know for sure why or how it happened. _They_ say it was because I made a choice. The doctor said it's because of a genetic mutation. My parents say it's all in my head, like when and old lady lifts up a car to save her grandchild. I don't really know what to think. All I know is that it changed my life forever.

I was always bullied in high school. I had always been different. I was quiet and yes, a big nerd. The cheerleaders would make fun of me, and the jocks would push me around. It seemed like I could never catch a break. Everyday I was subject to verbal and physical abuse at the hands of my peers… that is until May 19, 2003. I still remember that day like it was yesterday, and I will never forget. I was in the school cafeteria, and after I had gone and bought my lunch I walked out to the courtyard. As I was walking out into the sun soaked courtyard one of the football jocks walked up to me, followed by a bunch of his jock teammates. He was tall, muscular, and blond, the perfect specimen of High School football quarterback.

"You took the last piece of cake! Give it to me!" he told me quietly but forcefully. It was crowded and very loud in the cafeteria. Only those whom were right next to us would be able to hear us, and since his jock friends surrounded us I knew that I had no way out. He was giving me the usual jock stare down that meant I am better than you; you don't deserve to be here. "Give it to me now, or I'll punch your face in!" I knew that he wasn't lying. He wouldn't do it here with everyone watching. Too much risk, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do it later.

"Fine" I said "You can have it" and just as I set my tray down and was about to hand it to him… that's when it happened. _They_ say it is different for everyone. For me it was like something inside me snapped. Something inside of me had finally had enough, and finally started to fight back. I hit him so hard he flew across the room into the large glass windows of the courtyard, shattering them. At first it seemed like he had been knocked unconscious, but he finally sat up with his bloody nose and stared me down.

"Freak!" he screamed. I could feel all of the eyes of the other students in the cafeteria on me. "You're going to pay for that!" and then with a mixture of anger and fear in his eyes, he ran away. Everyone in the cafeteria sat in silence for a few moments, and then it was like a bomb had gone off. A bomb filled with laughing gas. Everyone was clapping and laughing… and they weren't laughing at me this time. He and his friends had terrorized the school for so long… they were finally getting their due. I had a sudden feeling of satisfaction. Like somehow I wasn't the victim anymore…. That is until the school narks came and dragged me away to the dean's office.

I have permanently blocked out the events immediately following that day. They don't really matter anymore anyway. That's not who I am now. The important thing is that some time after that incident in the school cafeteria I met a guy who introduced himself to me as Alexander Harris. I don't know why I listened to him, let alone why I trusted him, but it's not like I really had a choice anyway. It was all kind of creepy when he explained it too me, but it in a way it made more sense than anything anyone else had come up with. He explained everything to me; about the nightmares, my newfound strength, and why I always felt like someone was watching me. At first it was kind of creepy, but after a while it gave me a sense of purpose, of belonging. I'm still not sure how he did it, but somehow he convinced my parents to send me to boarding school in England. I spent a few weeks being trained there by these people who call themselves "watchers". Ever since then I've been living in Scotland with Mr. Harris, working everyday to protect the world from vampires, demons and the forces of evil. I am a slayer.


	3. The News

A young blond woman is standing on the balcony of a large castle. It's dark out and she seems to be starring off at something way off in the distance. Below her are hundreds of young women all fighting. They are fighting one another, but not because they are enemies, but because they are training… training for what is to come. After a few minutes a dark haired man with an eye patch comes out to talk to the woman on the balcony. "Buffy. We need to talk." He says quietly.

"Not now Xander. I'm not in the mood." She responds angrily. When he looks in her eyes he can see the pain that she is in. What she did was wrong, and she knew that. The problem is that it didn't stop her from doing what she did.

"Buffy. What you did was wrong. Satsu is a _person_ not something you can just throw around. At least Spike…" but he wasn't able to finish his sentence before she slapped him.

"Don't ever talk to me about Spike! You have no idea what you are talking about! You have no idea what I'm going through, no idea what I've been through! Spike was the only thing that kept me going the last few years back in Sunnydale, and he knew what he was doing. He was the only person in my life that really understood me. He made me feel whole in ways I hadn't felt since…" she didn't bother to finish what she was saying she just stormed off down the hall. He didn't bother following her. He knew that it would only lead to more fighting and then getting his faced punched in.

"God Xander makes me so mad sometimes!" she said to herself as she walked down the long hallway of the castle. The floor was made of stone, just like the walls, but a red carpet lined the floor. Every so often she would pass an ornate carving, or a holder that at one time would have held a burning piece of wood, but was now holding a lamp that looked like a burning piece of wood. "He has no idea what he's talking about… no idea what it is like to be so… alone…" She had been tearing herself up inside for days since the incident with Satsu. She knew that what she was doing was wrong, but she had to try something. She had thought at the time that maybe if she could allow Satsu to love her that maybe she could learn to love again or at least gain some measure of normalcy in her life. Maybe Satsu could help her feel the connection that everyone else was always talking about. She really had tried to be with Satsu, but as she had said before; she's not gay… at least not so you'd notice. It's not that she hadn't enjoyed being with her, not at all, it had been very nice… strange… but nice, but once again something had been wrong. Something with her, and she still had no idea what it was, but this time she had subjected an innocent person to her problems, an innocent girl… an innocent slayer. She was afraid that her friends, especially Willow, would never forgive her for what she had done. She wasn't sure that she could forgive herself.

She walked down the hall of the castle deep in thought until she got back to her room. She walked through the large wooden door and then she sat down on the bed and just stared off into space, trying to figure out what had happened to her to make her this desperate. "This isn't me…" she kept thinking. She tried to remember the last time that she had felt completely whole, but she kept getting stuck. She knew that it was some point before she died… she had never been the same after that, but for some reason she couldn't figure out the last time that she had been truly happy. Spike had tried his best, but he had never made her truly happy… that was impossible because he hadn't really become a part of her life, at least not an important part, until after she died. It seemed after she died that she was just a shell of her former self, just going through the motions trying to keep her sister and her friends safe and happy. However the more that she thought about it, the more that she realized that the changed in her had occurred before that. She thought about how her mother's death had had an impact on her life, or about what she was like after Riley left her, but she still couldn't put a finger on why she was always so miserable.

The more that she thought about her life the more confused that she became. She missed how simple her life had been back in Sunnydale before she had died. It was so simple wake up, eat, go to school, eat, slay, eat, and sleep. Here in Scotland everything was so complicated. She had to take care of hundreds of young girls, and make sure that they were ready for whatever was coming… and something was coming. She was sure of it. Something was always coming. As much as she loved her friends, they had never really understood her. Even now, with hundreds of other slayers out there she still felt so alone. There were a total of two people in her life that had ever really understood her, and she was pretty certain that at least one of them was dead, if not both. Spike had died on the Hellmouth, saving the world from the first evil. Angel was somewhere in L.A. Technically, he was dead, but not in the final forever way. Technically he had been dead the entire time that she knew him so that wasn't exactly new. However she hadn't spoken to him or heard from him in any way since she had told him that the apocalypse had been averted last may. Technically, she had lied and said that she was in Italy, which would explain why she hadn't hear from him, but still… it was odd that she hadn't heard anything even on the demon grapevine. Which is why she wasn't entirely sure that he wasn't dead too.

"That's it. I can't stay here any longer." She said to herself. She got up and began to search around the room for things that she could pack. "I'm going to go find Giles, and tell him that I quit, and then I'm on the next flight out of here. I don't care where the flight goes, I'm going away, far away." She was still packing her things when she heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?"

"It's me. Willow." She heard a familiar voice say.

"You can come in, but I can't really talk right now. I'm busy."

"Busy with what?" She heard her best friend say as she walked into the room. Willow gasped when she saw what Buffy was doing. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm leaving."

"but you can't leave Buffy. These girls need you. We need you. You are the leader, and without you everyone here will be lost." Buffy could tell that she meant it, but she didn't really care. She didn't believe it anyway.

"You guys will be just fine. You and Xander can handle it. Besides Giles will send you another slayer and I can't stay here Will. I need a break. After everything that I did…" She really didn't want to go down that road. That was a bad place. Bad Buffy! "I need some space. I'm going to see Giles and tell him that I'm leaving and then well…"

"Where are you going to go?" Willow asked her. Buffy could tell now that her friend was concerned.

"If I knew that, it would spoil all the fun." She said jokingly, but in reality she meant it. Buffy had no idea where she was going, or even where she wanted to go. She just knew that she couldn't stay here.

"Buffy. You can't just take off like this. We need you. Dawn needs you.

"Dawn can take care of herself. She's a lot bigger now, and besides there is nothing I can do to help her. You're the only one who can do that. Once she's smaller she's just gonna go back to school anyway." She felt bad about this. She really did care for her sister, and the thought of having to leave Dawn in this… state… well, it almost changed her mind… almost… but only for a second.

Buffy would have left that day. She really really would have, and she wasn't sure that she would have come back if it weren't for what happened next. All of a sudden she heard screams coming from down the hall where a few of the new Slayers had been relaxing and watching T.V. in their free time. Buffy pushed past her friend, ran down the hall, and into the room where the girls were sitting. She knew something was wrong before she even looked at the T.V, however she never would have expected what she saw next. "The entire city of Los Angeles disappeared today…" a news anchor reported solemnly. All of a sudden everything just stopped. Buffy could tell that people were trying to talk to her, ask her what was wrong, but she didn't fully hear them. All she heard was the rushing noise in her ears. She just stared at the television in disbelief. "Gone" she mumbled "It's all gone. He's gone. Just gone."

At one point Willow came into the room. As soon as she saw what was on the television, she knew that it was going to be along night. She quickly shut the television off, and told the other girls to wait there in the room while she took Buffy back to her room. She could tell that the other girls were scared, not just because of what they had seen on the television, as if that weren't horrific enough, but by the reaction Buffy had had to the news.

Most of the girls knew that Buffy and her friends were from California. They even knew that Buffy had grown up in Los Angeles, but they had no idea that she would react this way. They had expected her to want to go fight, or do research… but this. This was a side of their leader that they had never seen before. It was as if Buffy's world had come to a screeching halt.

Willow carried Buffy down the hall to her room and sat her down on the bed. "It'll be all right. I'm sure whatever happened there is an explanation for it. I'm sure they are all right. We'll get to the bottom of this don't worry." She tried to comfort her friend, but in her heart she knew that it was never going to be all right. Their friends were most likely dead, and there really wasn't much that even she could do about it. She could bring people back from the dead, but she couldn't restore whole cities.

"What are we going to tell the girls?" Buffy asked in a whisper. She still couldn't wrap her mind around it. The entire city of Los Angeles was… gone. Cordelia and Wesley were gone, most importantly though, Angel was gone.

"I'm not sure." Willow responded. "I'll think of something." And then she left. She knew that this was going to be hard because some of the girls had family in Los Angeles. She also knew that she was going to have to leave as soon as possible to go talk to their other friends and the slayers that they were working with. She thought about having to tell Giles, Andrew, and Faith… oh god Faith. She hadn't really thought about that. Faith was the only other person who knew Angel and his friends. After everything that Angel had done for her Faith was rather attached to him, and was going to be very upset. "This is a nightmare." She said to herself.


	4. The Aftermath of Stupid Men!

_God! What is it with men! Why are they all so stupid!_ Willow was pacing back and forth in her room. It had been a long month since they had received the news. She could still remember how it happened:

"_The entire city of Los Angeles disappeared today…" a news anchor reported. Buffy just stared at the tv in complete shock. Willow had run over to the TV and shut it off as quickly as she could._

Little did Willow know when it happened she was in for a long month. After taking Buffy to her room and making sure that she wasn't going to hurt herself, or anyone else for that matter, she had gone to talk to the others. She, Xander, and Dawn decided that they should have a large meeting and announce it to everyone as a group. They knew that there were some girls who were from LA and that they were going to find a way to help them deal, but Willow's pressing concern was finding out what happened and trying to help Buffy.

After making the announcement to the girls, she had told them to direct their questions to Xander and Dawn, as she was going to go and find out as much information as she possibly could about what had actually happened in LA. The Government had called it a nuclear attack, and had vowed to get revenge, which she was sure was just an excuse to invade as many countries as they wanted. Before she left to go searching for information she had stopped in to see Buffy. She told her that she was going to do whatever she could to find out what happened. Buffy just seemed to be in a daze. She didn't seem to understand what was going on. Willow just hoped that her friend would recover enough to be able to help Xander with the 30 or so grieving slayers that had just lost their friends and families.

It didn't take long for Willow to find out what really happened. She didn't know where Giles was, and since she was certain the last one to visit LA was Andrew she went to Rome to talk to him first. From Andrew she had learned that Spike was alive, that was a shocker, and that a few weeks ago Angel and Spike had showed up in Rome looking for Buffy. When she inquired about their visit though Andrew laughed at first and told her an amusing story about what Buffy affectionately called "jealous vampire" but as soon as the topic of what he had told them came up he seemed to withdraw. Which was odd for Andrew… because he LOVED to talk. She had no way of knowing for certain but she suspected that Andrew was blaming something that he said to the two vampires for what took place in LA. Before she left though he had mentioned something about Wolfram and Hart and some sort of demon head, so she headed for the Rome office of Wolfram and Hart.

She may not have trusted the evil law firm, but she somehow new that she would find the answers there. She didn't know exactly what she had expected to find when she got there, but it wasn't what she found. What she found was chaos. Wolfram and Hart was still there, but barely. The phones were ringing off the hook, people were running from office to office, and she was pretty sure that she saw someone lose their head. She walked straight for the CEO's office, but when she got there it was empty. She found a random person running through the halls and asked him what was going on. "Don't you know? It's over. The senior partners a really angry. We are all gonna die." Willow looked at him confused.

"What do you mean we are all going to die?" she inquired.

"That stupid vampire and his stupid friends screwed us. They tried to take on the senior partners, and failed. Unfortunately they really screwed things up in the process, and now the senior partners are trying to find someone to take it out on. Unfortunately since we were the last branch to have contacted with those morons we've been the brunt of most of the blame." The man looked really scared, but he seemed confused by Willows lack of knowledge.

"What exactly did they do?"

"You don't know?! How could you not know!?" He asked exasperatedly, but he was too tired and scared to really care who she was or why she wasn't in on what happened. "The stupid vampire and his friends took out the Circle of the Blackthorn. The senior partners lost some of their hold on this dimension. Our stocks have been plummeting and we've been losing clients left and right. And not just at this branch. All over the world. He really screwed us! I knew he was up to know good, but no! Everyone kept insisting that the senior partners had it under control. He's changed! We finally got through to him! I never believed it for an instant, but nobody listens to me I'm just a lowly lawyer. What do I know?" he ranted while storming off.

"Wait!" Willow called after him. "Do you know what happened to them? Were there any survivors?"

"I don't know for sure. I'm sure there are after all they were sucked into hell. That's why the whole city disappeared. Whether or not anyone from that branch survived, I sure hope not. After all they're the ones who got us into all this trouble. I hope that they all rot in hell. Of course knowing the senior partners that stupid vampire is probably alive in that hell dimension. After all he's done, they still think that they need him for something! God! How stupid are these people. I mean I know that he has a soul, and there is that stupid prophecy and all but he's JUST a vampire!" Willow then knew what she had to do. She had to find out what dimensions the city of LA had been sucked into and whether or not any of their friends were still alive in that dimension. She also knew that she was going to have to contact Giles and find out about any prophecies about Angel.

She had spent the rest of the last month combing the earth, as well as a few other dimensions for information about what had occurred in LA. Every time she found a new piece of information she called Buffy. Buffy seemed to come out of her state whenever Willow called with news. More than once after Willow had told her that Spike was alive and that he and Angel were most likely in hell, she had made Willow promise to help her do whatever was necessary to get them out of hell.

It hadn't taken her very long to contact Giles after her visit to Rome. Giles had gone back to Scotland with Faith as soon as they had heard the news about what had happened in LA.Andrew and Robin had also joined them. As Willow had been afraid of Faith had been upset about what happened, more so than the others, however she had taken the news better than Buffy. Actually there was one good thing that came out of the LA incident. Buffy and Faith were finally starting to get along. Really get along. They seemed to be bonding over the idea that they had lost their friends.

When Giles had first arrived it had been really difficult, because that's when the truth came out. That's when Buffy and Faith learned that Giles new full well about what was happening and had purposely not 

told them. Willow was also shocked to learn that Angel had tried to contact her earlier about some girl named Fred. Willow was particularly upset about that news. She knew there was no way that Angel would have called her unless there was something really wrong and she like Fred. Even she was shocked and hurt by Giles' betrayal. At that point they all got into a huge argument about what to do next. Giles, Xander, and Robin were all for doing nothing. They seemed to think that Angel and his friends had got what was coming to them and they were not to be trusted or helped in any way. Dawn and Andrew weren't really sure of what to do, but they did know that if Spike was alive in another dimension that they should do whatever they could to save him, and if they had to save Angel to save spike well than they would do just that. Buffy and Faith on the other hand were ready to go to the ends of the earth to save their friends. Willow didn't know what to do. She wanted to help their friends as much as anyone, but she also knew that it would be dangerous, near impossible, and that they would be crossing Wolfram and Hart, and what happened in LA is a good example of why you don't want to piss off the senior partners of Wolfram and Hart.

It was the new slayers that had given her perspective. After talking to Kennedy and some of the other girls who had fought with them in Sunnydale, they told her "You never give up on your friends you never know when you are going to need them again." That is the most important lesson anyone had given them since learning about their destinies. That's when Willow knew that Buffy and Faith were right. They needed to help their friends.

Willow had also asked Giles about the prophecy that the man from Wolfram and Hart had told her about. Giles told her that he didn't know much. All he had heard, from very untrustworthy sources mind you, was that Wolfram and Hart believed that Angel was the key to the apocalypse. Something about a prophecy about a vampire with a soul playing a pivotal role in the apocalypse. "Which vampire with a soul?" she asked Giles.

"I had that same question myself willow. That's why I never really put any stock in it." He seemed somehow to be upset by this, but he would never admit it. She couldn't tell whether it was because he genuinely felt bad about what he had done, or if he just felt bad about how it had affected Buffy.

Willow had spent the rest of the month trying to figure out what dimension their friends were in. She was still trying to piece together the puzzle that was the last year in LA. She really wished that Giles and Andrew had kept her in the loop about what was going on, or that Angel had tried harder to get a hold of her… or any of them for that matter, but she couldn't change the past. _Stupid Stupid MEN!_ She thought. _They never think about anyone but themselves! _


	5. Xander's story

I will never really understand her. She hasn't been herself in a long time, but even then I'm not sure that I really understood her. She is one of my best friends in the whole world, but she is so confusing. A long time ago I loved her. Really loved her. Not in the way that I do now. Now she is my sister, along with Will. Giles is like our Father, but back then I loved her, and she ignored me. She was too infatuated with _him_. I guess I really never got what she saw in him. After all he wasn't even really _alive_; he couldn't give her a real life. I kind of gave up on that though when I saw that nothing was ever going to come between them. It's ironic though that right around the same time that Buffy lost her love, I found mine.

Anya. How I miss her. I can't believe what an idiot I was leaving her. I never thought that I would ever do to Anya what Angel did to Buffy, but it ended up happening. Again with the irony. I loved Anya with all of my soul, and in the end I ended up doing the one thing that I never wanted to do: I hurt her. I will always wonder if she will ever be able to forgive me because she died in the big battle with the first.

After that battle all Buffy could do was mope around and go on and on about how Spike made this big sacrifice, and how she was so sad and she missed him, but to tell you the truth I didn't really care. Spike was evil. No matter what anyone says he is a vampire and always will be one. Same thing is true about Angel. It's like the two of them were put on this earth to torment Buffy. Spike with a soul is a walking time bomb just like Angel. I don't really know how he got his soul, he could be cursed, or not, it really doesn't matter in the end. There is more than one way to lose a soul. Anyway, it really isn't my dislike of Spike that was what upset me. I was upset because I had just lost the woman I loved, the love of my life, and all Buffy could talk about was herself. God! She can be so self-centered sometimes. I mean she's my best friend, like a sister to me, but sometimes she just infuriates me. Like with this whole Satsu incident.

I still can't believe that she used that poor girl. I knew that she had used Spike when she first came back from the dead, but that was different. First of all that was two years ago, and I thought that she had gotten past all that, and second of all Spike was a soulless demon at the time, and he wanted it. Poor Satsu on the other hand… she just didn't deserve that. Buffy was right about one thing, those of us that love her tend to get hurt. In a way the reason I lost Anya was because I loved Buffy. If I were smart I would have married Anya and left this life behind… but I didn't. I couldn't leave Buffy. It cost me dearly. All of us have gotten hurt because we loved Buffy. Willow lost Tara. Giles lost Ms. Calendar. I know it was a long time ago, but I can tell that he never really got over it completely. It's not something you ever do. I should know that. I miss Anya every single day.

Buffy needs us though. Especially after the whole LA incident. I mean I knew that she still had feelings for Angel, but I didn't think this would hurt her this bad. After she saw the news she barely moved for a whole day. I finally managed to get her to come out of her room, but she was still extremely upset. It wasn't until Giles came here that she finally started to wake up. Giles really pissed her off I guess. At least she's been getting along with Faith. After talking to Giles and Willow it was like she had finally found some purpose. Ever since then she's been running around night and day, training, and researching, and trying to find a way to get them out of hell. They're not worth her time. She can do so much better. They don't deserve her, and it pains me to see how much either of them can hurt her even in death… well disappearance.

I knew there was a reason why I never liked Angel. I never really liked Spike either, but he couldn't hurt her the way that Angel could. Every time she saw him after he left it was like she had something ripped out of her. If I thought that I was pissed at the guy before, well I wasn't. What I felt before is like minor dislike compared to the total hatred that I feel now. The pain and suffering he has caused, and not just to Buffy, is catastrophic. There are about 30 different slayers with us who just lost all of their friends and family in one day. Not to mention the millions of people who lived in Los Angeles who just got sucked into hell. It's ironic that Angel would succeed in doing the very thing that Buffy had prevented him from doing all those years ago. Only this time he was supposedly "good". Willow keeps telling me all about how it isn't all bad because Angel basically took out Wolfram and Hart in this dimension, but I don't care. That evil law firm is not worth the millions of people that had their lives destroyed, and they don't even know the real reason why. They think there was some sort of a nuclear attack and that their friends and family members who died are at peace in heaven, but in reality they're in hell. They're in hell because Angel pissed off a law firm.

Well if there ever was a person who deserved hell it would be him, but I'll never tell Buffy that. I am going along with her plans because I know it's what keeps her going, and at the end of the day that is all that matters. No matter how much I may hate myself for it sometimes, no matter how much I may want to deny it, she's a part of me. I love her. She is my family and I will do anything for her. I just wish that I knew that she would do the same for me…


	6. The Meeting, Part 1

The Meeting Part 1

"Giles. You have a lot of explaining to do." Willow said to her friend. Giles, Faith, Willow, Xander, Dawn, Robin, Buffy, and Andrew were all sitting around a table. Dawn had been people sized for officially two days now. Once Willow had figured out what had happened it was simply a matter of reversing the magics that had been put on her. She seemed to be doing a lot better ever since she went back to her normal size. Giles and Faith had arrived earlier that day after hearing about the "helL A" incident as it had been dubbed. Robin and Andrew had arrived not long after that. Willow had just flown back from Rome after learning what had taken place in LA. Well at least part of it. The tension in that room could be cut with a knife. It was clear that there were some disagreements about what had been going on over the past few months. This was the first time that the whole group had met together in months. They would have been happy to see one another, but so much had changed in the past year. Misunderstandings had occurred. Friends had been betrayed. It was a long year.

"I'm not exactly sure what you expect me to explain Willow. You certainly know more about what happened than I do." Giles responded. "If anyone would have known what was going on or was going to happen, it would be you."

"You may not know WHAT happened… but I have a feeling you know WHY it happened, and your not getting off the hook this time. You are going to explain to EVERYONE why we didn't hear about this in advance." Willow was starting to get angry now. She knew full well that Giles had an idea of what had been going on in LA. There was no way that he didn't After all, he had been the one who had sent Andrew to LA to retrieve Dana. He had been the one to tell Andrew that Angel and his friends were not to be trusted.

"Willow, What happened in LA is a perfect example of why I did what I did. They were not to be trusted, and clearly… if what happened in LA is not a perfect example of this then I don't know what possibly could be… evil!" Giles responded. "For starters, Angel knew full well what Wolfram and Hart is and yet he joined up with them. Also you have to take into the account that they were clearly hiding Spike from us for the past few months. If they were so trustworthy why didn't we have any idea that Spike was alive?"

"What?! Spike is alive?!" Buffy gasped. She looked completely shocked. She had no idea whatsoever that Spike had been alive all this time. Why hadn't anyone told her? Why hadn't HE told her? Why hadn't he come to her? "Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't I know this?" Buffy asked

"He told me he wanted to keep it a secret." Andrew said. He sounded ashamed and sad.

"What did he do that for? He knew that we would want to see him, and know that he's all right. " Dawn pointed out. She looked almost as confused and hurt as Buffy. Spike may have been a vampire, and he may not have always been good, but he was her friend, and he had helped her and Buffy in ways that no one else could really understand. She cared almost as much for the blond vampire as her sister.

"I'm no sure…" Andrew replied. "At first, I think he just wanted you to have a normal life Buffy. I guess he figured that you would have moved on, and he didn't want to disrupt that. Later on though… well… He and Angel both thought that you had moved on… that you loved someone new… the Immortal."

"You told them WHAT?!" Buffy was really upset now. She had known about her double in Rome, and she had know that her double was publicly dating the Immortal, but she hadn't thought that Spike or Angel would have known about it. _I guess I should have assumed that they would think that was me._ She thought to herself. But then she thought _WHY would they assume that was me? They both know me! _"How did they even know I was dating the Immortal? They were half way across the world!"

"A couple of weeks ago… they… they both… they both came to Rome. To visit… to visit you. They were worried about you. Angel… Angel had found out that you were dating the Immortal. I think… I think they wanted to… save you from him." Buffy could tell that Andrew was afraid of her, and he should be. Buffy was really angry now.

"Why didn't you tell them? Why didn't you tell them that that wasn't me? Why did you let them think… think that I had moved on? Why did you let them think that I was in love with someone else?"

"Because I told him to." Giles added. "As I've said before, and I'll say again, they were not to be trusted…"

"And tell me again Giles. Tell me why I trust YOU!" Buffy asked him. "You don't know if they were evil. You didn't really know what was going on. Did you even know Spike was alive? You didn't even give them the benefit of the doubt. They've both… they've both fought by our sides and helped us for years. Not just Angel and Spike either, Wesley, Cordelia, they've helped too. Where do you get off telling us… deciding for us not to trust them when you don't even know the whole story?!"

"Buffy, You don't understand. Wolfram and Hart isn't just an ordinary law firm. Hell! It's not just an ordinary evil. They have power. They have power the like of which only the first can compare to. In fact they have MORE power than the first. They're more dangerous. Messing with wolfram and Hart is like playing with fire. I don't care how many times Spike or Angel or even Wesley for that matter have helped us. It doesn't matter. You don't mess with Wolfram and Hart. If you do, you get what happened in LA. Do you want that Buffy? Do you want **another** LA?" Everyone in the room could tell the Giles was getting angry. He was sick and tired of everyone questioning his judgment. They had no right. He had made a call. A call that at the time was the right one. He knew in his heart that no matter what anyone said, it was for the best.

"No…" Buffy said defeated.

"I've dealt with Wolfram and Hart before, and they are definitely scary." Faith said. "The first time I visited Angel in LA, before I went to prison… They tried to hire me to kill Angel. They were pretty desperate to get to him. They knew who I was… WHAT I was, and they tried to use it to their advantage. They wanted him dead… or worse evil, and they knew everything. They even knew about you, B." Buffy looked surprised.

"I'm the slayer. Of course the knew about me." She responded, but she didn't need to ask to know that that wasn't what Faith had been referring to. She knew what Fait had meant. She knew that Faith was referring to the time that Angel had lost his soul… because of her.

"Enough." Willow interjected. "It's over now. Now we just have to figure out what happened, and what we can do to help." Everyone in the whole room turned and looked at the red head. "I guess I should start explaining now… I don't know the whole story yet, I'm still working on it but this is what I know: Angel wasn't evil. He was trying very hard to convince the Senior Partners and everyone at Wolfram and Hart that he was, and he was doing a good job of it, but he wasn't. He needed them… he needed the world to think that he was evil so that he could take out the Circle of the Black Thorn. And before any of you ask what that is let me explain. The Circle of the Black Thorn was a secret society here on earth whose job was to help the Senior Partners keep their hold on this dimension. In order to do this, they needed to keep certain people… like you Buffy, Angel, and Spike busy. They did this by creating chaos… creating apocalypses."

"What do you mean… apocalypses?" Buffy asked

"I mean exactly what it sounds like I mean. I mean that everything that has been thrown at you… at us… for the past eight years… for the most part has been sent by them. Somehow. The Master, Angelus, Spike, Drusilla, The Mayor, Adam, Glory, Warren, The First, and…"

"you?" Buffy asked looking at her friend. How could this be? How could there be one organization responsible for all of her suffering for the last eight years? How was that even possible? Why hadn't she known about this? How long had Angel known? And if he had know, Why hadn't he told her? A million questions were racing through her mind at once.

"yes. Me. I don't have any idea how they are responsible, but they claim that they are, and well… I'm not disinclined to believe them. I'm sure you can probably imagine now why Angel would want to take them out… but there was only one way to do it… From the inside. Angel needed the world to think that he was evil so that he could join the Circle of the Black Thorn, And from what I understand he did a pretty good job of convincing people that he was evil. Rumor has it that even his friends thought that he had gone over to the other side… so I guess Giles can't entirely be blamed for not trusting them… but the important part is that it worked. The only way for Angel to know for sure who the members of the Circle of the Black Thorn were was to join the group himself. Which he did… and the preceded to kill each and everyone of them… Which as you can imagine did not make the Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart very happy."

"So that whole incident in LA… That was just their retaliation? That was there punishment?" Xander asked. He was really pissed at Angel now. All those people… All those people who died, or lost there love ones… all because Angel wanted to take out some evil secret society?

"Yes. And No. After Angel killed all of the members of the Circle of the Black Thorn the Senior Partners began to loose their hold on this dimension. That's why all the Wolfram and Hart branches have been closing and their stock has been plummeting. In a last ditch effort to regain control they sucked the entire city of Los Angeles, along with everyone in it, into a hell dimension. There they could hold Angel and his friends with out them making trouble, while the senior partners worked to regain their hold in this dimension."

"So they're in hell?" Buffy asked. "You mean, they're not dead?" All of a sudden Buffy just started laughing. Laughing so hard she almost fell out of her chair. "Hell?" she giggled. "Of course they're in hell! Where else would they be?!" Everyone was looking at Buffy as if she was loosing her mind. "Don't you get it? They're in hell! Come on guys. Think! It's Angel and Spike we are talking about. They're like hell magnates. If there were a way to get to hell the two of them would find it. This is at least the second trip there for both of them." Buffy continued to laugh.

"Third" Willow cut in.

"What?" Buffy asked between giggles.

"I said third. This is the third time that Angels been to hell." She smiled at her friend and then started to laugh herself. Typical. She thought. Of course. It would make sense that Angel of all people would end up in yet ANOTHER hell dimension. It was pretty funny if you though about it. Even the others started to laugh now. They all began to realize just how ironic it all was in the end. Everyone except Robin that is.

"I don't know what the hell you all think is so AMUSING! But need I remind you that your quote on quote friends got an entire city sucked into hell along with them." Robin pointed out angrily. The laughing stopped.

"Okay…" Buffy said trying to regain her composure. "How do we get them out?"


	7. The Meeting, Part 2

"_Okay" Buffy said, "How do we get them out?"_

"I'm not sure that we can." Willow told her.

"What?! But you just said…"

"I said that they were in hell. I didn't say that there was anything we could do about it. As far as I know they are in that dimension because the Senior Partners want them there. There is a really good chance that the only way they are getting out of hell, is if the Senior Partners let them out." Willow explained. "Besides, It's one thing to break one person out of hell, but this time we are talking about millions."

"…and were not going to just save your vampire lovers and their friends." Robin added.

"Shut up Robin! You have no IDEA what you are talking about." Faith said surprising everyone. It was exactly the type of thing they had all expected Buffy to say. "Angel was the one person in my life who never gave up on me. He is reason why I am here today. I owe him my life… my sanity… and that isn't something that you can ever repay. I don't really know Spike, but he seemed like a nice enough guy. The things he's done for B here I don't blame her for trusting him. You don't know either of them, and you don't understand what they've done for me, B, us… and the world." Everyone was surprised by Faith's speech, but in the end they knew what she meant. Buffy looked at Faith with understanding in her eyes, as if to say, "thank you".

"Faith, Buffy, they were my friends too, and I will do whatever I can to get them back… to get all the people of Los Angeles back." Willow told them. "In fact we should all make a point to find out what happened there and how to fix it… and before any of you say anything else…" Willow said looking across the table at Robin, Xander, and Giles. "This isn't just about Angel, Spike, and their friends… this is about saving an entire city… millions of people from eternal damnation."

"so… where do we start?" Buffy asked her friend.

"With research… lots and lots of research…" Giles told her. " I think that much is obvious. Willow is right. We have to save these people."

"Giles, The man I spoke to in Rome told me about some kind of prophecy about Angel. Do you know what he was talking about?" Willow asked him.

Giles sighed, " I don't know… I've heard things… from terribly unreliable sources mind you… There is supposedly a prophecy about a vampire with a soul playing a major role in the apocalypse." Everyone looked at Giles expectantly. "Rumor has it that it hasn't been decided which side, good or evil, the vampire is going to help."

"It'll be for good." Buffy said with certainty. Xander and Robin stared her down from across the table, making it clear that they did not agree with her assumption.

"That's not all…" Giles said, "The prophecy says that if the vampire should avert the apocalypse and save the world then he will become human."

"What?!" They all asked at the same time.

"Uh Giles?" Willow asked.

"Yes Willow."

"Which vampire with a soul?" It was a question some of them had been thinking, and the others had forgotten, but it was an important question, and the whole room was held at attention. "There… There are two of them now, you know?"

"I am aware of that Willow, but the fact of the matter is that I just don't know. I am assuming that for years many people assumed that the prophecy was about Angel. After all he has had a soul for over a hundred years now, except for that period in Sunnydale… but now… now there are two of them, and there is no way of knowing which vampire it refers too, or if it refers to both… I just don't know." Giles looked defeated. As soon as he had mentioned this part of the prophecy something in Buffy seemed to wake up. He didn't know why… well he had an idea why, but he didn't know which vampire she was hoping would fulfill the prophecy. He wished he could give her the answer that she wanted, not matter which one it was, because he just wanted to see her happy again. She had been so closed off now for so long… he just didn't care anymore if she needed a vampire to make her happy. He just wanted her to be happy.

"However, as I said before, the sources I received this information from were extremely unreliable." Giles warned.

"Well that at least clears one thing up." Willow said happily.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked her,

"The man I spoke to in Rome talked about how the Senior Partners would probably be keeping Angel alive in the hell dimension. He told me that the Senior Partners thought that they needed Angel." Willow explained. "I knew Angel was special, with a soul and all, and I knew that when he was evil… well let's just say he is REALLY evil… but I couldn't figure out why some all powerful evil beings would think that they need a vampire… no matter who he is… but now I get it. They read the prophecy. Assumed it was about Angel, and they are holding him in hell until the time comes when they need him to fulfill the prophecy. At that point they hope that they have done enough to either corrupt him or make him go completely nuts so that he'll end the world… and just for good measure they grabbed Spike and dragged him into hell to just to be on the safe side."

"Yes Willow. That makes sense." Giles agreed with her, "it also explains why a multi-dimensional EVIL corporation, would want to keep the first from succeeding in Sunnydale. They used that amulet to get both vampires under their control. They don't want anything to mess with their plan."

"So" Robin interjected hoping to be the voice of reason. "Now that we know what happened in LA, why it happened, and that were going to try and fix it, What are we going to tell those girls out there who lost their friends and family?"

"Robin has a point." Xander added before anyone else could speak up. "Getting LA out of hell isn't going to be easy. It's going to take all of us, and we can't ask these girls to fight… maybe die… without telling them what they are fighting for, and why they have to be fighting at all."

"We are going to tell them that the people of LA need saving, and that we are going to do just that." Buffy ordered.

" No Buffy. If they are going to know, then they need to know everything. We won't be able to hide the fact that all those people are in a hell dimension, and they are going to want to know why… and you're going to tell them. They deserve to know." Xander replied angrily. He knew that Buffy wasn't going to want to tell the other Slayers what had gone down in LA, but while she had been locked in her room he had been comforting all the girls who had lost their friends and families in LA. He knew that if it had been his friends and family he would want to know the truth. He also knew that if it were Buffy's friends and family she too would want to know the truth.

"Fine. We'll tell them, but since we don't exactly have ALL the facts we aren't going to go making things up." Buffy said as she got up and began to leave the room.

"Where are you going Buffy?" Xander inquired.

"I'm going to go tell them myself. Now. I know that if it were my family and friends that were in hell I would want to know what was going on. I would feel better knowing there was something I could do about it… something I would do about it. I am going to give them that." Xander didn't know, but Buffy had been watching him and the other slayers after the announcement. She knew how hard it had been for them. She also knew what it was like to loose the people that she loved. She wanted to do what she could for those girls. She was, like it or not, their leader… their role model, and It was time for her to step up and act like it.


	8. What did I do to deserve this?

_What did I do to deserve this?_

This is the thought that kept coursing through my mind everyday that I had to wake up and once again face the world. I don't know how it happened, and I don't know why it happened, but for some reason the world is just… wrong. I can't explain it. It all started about a month ago. I was at home asleep in my apartment, when all of a sudden there was a large roar coming from the downtown area. I had no idea what was going on but when I looked outside I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There was some large bright swirly thing right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles and there was an army coming out from it. Well… At least I think that's what it was… an army that is. It was kind of hard to tell, and the army itself didn't exactly look human… but what did I know at the time. Anyway after a few minutes, which had felt like hours at the time, there was another loud rushing noise, and all of a sudden I felt like I was being sucked into a small whole. It was terrible. I had never felt anything so terrible… well not until now. When it was over I was still standing in my apartment looking outside only now… now it was daytime… but for some reason the moon was still out… and the whole city looked like it was on fire. I was scared. I had no idea what to do. I'm an accountant. It's not exactly like we prepare for theses things. I continued to stare out of my window frozen in fear… and disbelief. I didn't move for what must have been hours… until… until I saw the building across the street grow a mouth… and eat someone. I don't think I've ever seen anything so strange or terrible… not before that… and never since. When I saw that I was so afraid that my own apartment was going to eat me so I ran. I had no idea where I was going, or how to tell whether or not a building was going to grow a mouth and eat me, but I knew that I had to do something. I couldn't just sit by and … die. Whoever did this… what ever they did to bring this on us... how could they? What could have been so damn important to get and entire city sucked into this… this hell? I still don't know all that's going on. I know that I am a refugee in a city filled with freaks and slaves. I heard one of the people protecting us call them… demons. I've learned since that day… the day that all this started… that there are good freaks and bad freaks. I've been living with the good freaks for about three weeks now. One of them is just a kid… but he's super strong… he can take care of himself. The other two… well… one has the ability to electrocute things on touch, and the other… well I'm not exactly sure what her problem is. I just know that the kid trusts her so whatever. A guy came by with a dragon yesterday. He brought more refugees with him. He seemed to get along with the kid and the electro girl… but the other girl didn't seem to like him very much. They talked for a while and then he left. I guess he must be one of them… another good freak. All of this is so confusing. It feels like a nightmare that my mind refuses to wake up from. _God, What did I do to deserve this?_


	9. Hellish Nightmares

"I must be dreaming" Buffy said to herself as she walked down the streets of what remotely resembled Los Angeles. Remotely, because while the buildings and the streets were still in their correct places, they weren't exactly the same… some of them had mouths. She looked up and noticed that both the sun and the moon were out at the same time. The sky looked like the sun was setting, filled with red and purple. Parts of the city off in the distance looked like it was on fire. _This must be what hell is like_ she thought to herself. All of a sudden she saw a dragon fly by overhead. _This has to be hell. I'm pretty sure that same dragon tried to come out of the hell dimension I closed when I died._ She didn't know what, but something possessed her to want to run after that dragon. So she ran after it. She ran after it as long as she could but it was a dragon… it could fly… and she couldn't so eventually she lost sight of it, but she continued to run in the same general direction she had seen it flying.

She was now running down a street in downtown Los Angeles that she didn't really recognize. It had been a long time since she had been there, almost four years. At the end of the block she saw a sign that made her heart stop. "Wolfram and Hart Attorneys at Law" she said out loud to herself. She wasn't sure what to do, but she knew that she wanted more than anything to see what was inside. Maybe it would give her some clue as to why she was here, or what happened that night in LA. _It's only a dream_ she thought to herself, but she knew that there was more to it than that. At the very least this was one of her "slayer dreams", the ones that predicted the future.

She slowly, cautiously approached the building and went inside. She could tell that the inside of the building had once been grand, with large windows and vaulted ceilings. _All these windows… how did two vampires live here for so long without burning up?_ She looked around for a staircase which would take her upstairs to the main offices. It took her a while but she found one and she slowly, carefully, made her way up the stairs.

When she reached the second floor she had that familiar tingling feeling that told her that someone was there. Even more quietly than before she made her way onto the floor and looked around. The stair case which had once led to the third floor was now hanging by a cable. The sign that said Wolfram and Hart was now lying in pieces on the floor. Across the room from where she was standing was what looked like a secretary's desk of some sort. _Great. Maybe there will be some sort of a map there or something that might give me a clue as to what I'm looking for._ She made her way over to the desk. When she got there, she saw something that confused her. A small unicorn was sitting in the corner of the desk, most likely left behind by the owner in a rush to get out. _Harmony? Harmony was here? It can't be. Why would Angel be working with Harmony?_ She tried to put the idea of Harmony out of her head as she looked through the desks for something that would tell her where to go…where to look for whatever she was here to look for.

After searching for a few minutes and not finding anything she decided that she was better off exploring on her own. _After all this is a dream anyway. If I get lost in this maze I will just wake up._ She turned around a way from Harmony's desk and was about to walk down one of the long halls when she stopped. She turned to her right and saw a name on the door next to her, a name that somehow it surprised her to see. _You knew he was here. You knew that he worked here. Hell, you knew that he was running the place. What is so surprising about his name on the door?_ Yet deep down inside she knew that by seeing that name on the door it made all of this… everything that had happened in the past month… that much more real. A part of her really wanted to open that door, and another part of her didn't want to go in there for the world, but in the end she knew that there were probably more answers behind that door than in any other room in the building.

She slowly opened the door, entered the room, and looked around. His office seemed relatively untouched compared to the rest of the building. She could tell that battle axes and other weapons used to hang on the wall behind his desk. _Angel always did love his fighting axes._ She walked up to his desk. There was nothing on it. Someone had come by and taken everything off of it a while ago. She started to search through the drawers, but again found nothing. _Great. Someone has already come through here and taken everything. Now what am I supposed to do._ Suddenly she heard a noise coming from somewhere above her… and some voices… familiar voices. She ran back into the main room and looked around for a stair case which would allow her to go up a floor. She didn't see any others other than the one which had fallen down and was hanging by a string. _Good thing I'm a slayer or this would have been a lot more difficult_. She jumped up to the next floor grabbed a hold on the railing, and then pulled herself up. She stopped and listened, trying to be as quiet as possible so that she could hear anyone else on that floor.

She could hear the voices coming from down the hall. She began to hurry towards them. As she got closer to the voices she slowed down. She didn't know whether or not they could see or hear her, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to find out. When she reached the room that they were in, the door was already open. She walked into the room and what she saw made her gasp. Angel was standing there next to the window not wearing any shirt. The sun was clearly out, even though the moon was too, but what really surprised her was that she could just make out his reflection in the window. _Now I know I'm dreaming. This can't be real. Vampires don't have any reflection._

As soon as she had entered the room Angel had turned around to face her. For a moment she thought that he could see her, but he turned to the right of her and started talking to... "Wesley?" Buffy asked out loud, even though she knew that they couldn't hear her. _Why is he transparent? Is he dead? Is he a ghost? What the hell is going on here!?_ She walked up to Angel and tried to hit him, but her hand went right through him as if she weren't even there at all. Again it he turned and looked at her, but again he dismissed it as if it were some strange crosswind. Buffy got closer to him in order to see what was going on. She was standing a few inches from him when she noticed "He's breathing. Really breathing. He's alive" She was stunned. In all her years this was something she had only dreamed about. _You're dreaming now you moron. _She had dreamed a lot about it actually, but it was never one of those vivid, the hills are alive with sound kind of dreams. Never like the one that she was in now. _This is so weird. Wesley's dead and Angel's alive. Usually its the other way around. This really must be hell... well except for the part where Angel's alive... cuz thats pretty cool._

"I have to get out of here Wesley. I have to find a way to get back." Angel told Wesley.

"There is no way... well at least none that I know of... that doesn't involve the senior partners letting us out... and there is no way they are going to do that... yet." Buffy could tell that Wesley hated telling his friend that.

"There are ways, Wesley... There are always ways. No one thought I would get out of hell the first time but... like I said there is always a way. There has to be a way. These people don't deserve this. These people don't deserve hell... but there here anyway... they are here because of what **I **did. Now it's my job to get them out... or at the very least try to help them." Angel seemed distraught. This was the first time she had seen him since that night before the battle with the first. She knew that she was dreaming, but at the same time... she somehow knew that this was all real. Very very real.

"Yes Angel, There are ways... However challenging all of the demon lords in hell to a battle to the death, which by the way you stand no chance of winning especially in your current state... is not one of them." She could tell that he was desparate to keep Angel from fighting these demon lords. SHE was desparate to keep him from fighting these demon lords.

"Don't do it Angel. We'll find a way to get you out of here. To get everyone out of here. Just don't do anything stupid... please." She knew that he couldn't hear her, but she needed to try. She needed to try SOMETHING.

"I have to do something Wesley... I can't just sit by and..."

"...do nothing?" Wesley finished for him. "I know you can't. It's not in you. Which is why I know that you're going to go through with this and that there is nothing I can do or say to stop you."

Angel and Wesley left the room and started walking down the hall. Buffy followed them. She wanted to know where they were going. There had to be some way to get through to him. _Angel always had that self sacrificing suicidal streak, and one of these days its actually going to kill him... just like I did..._

As they were walking down the hall she noticed that someone had hung up papers on the wall. Papers with writing... and pictures. She realized that this was what Angel had been talking about when he said that there were ways to get them out of hell. She looked at the papers on the wall. She analyzed them to the best of her ability, trying to remember as much as possible so that when she woke up in the morning she could tell Willow and Giles what she found. After a few minutes she realized that she had lost Angel and Wesley. She had no idea where they were. She sat down on the floor and tried to decipher the meanings behind the papers. They talked about some sort of orb... one of which was supposed to be somewhere in LA. _Well thats good news at least. Now all they have to do is find it._

All of a sudden she felt as if she was being pulled through some sort of portal. Her body felt like it was being pulled apart by all sides and she got that familiar sick feeling. _Great! Even when I'm dreaming about hell I get sick from these things! I have got to talk to Willow about this._ However this time when she landed she didn't throw up like she normally would. _At least when I dream about it I don't actually vomit_. She stood up and looked around her. She didn't like what she saw. There were about a dozen large demons surrounding her, one of which she was sure was some kind of dinosaur. _Is that a T-Rex? I mean I suspected that the dinosaurs might actually be demons... but a T-Rex? Aren't those things supposed to be extinct? _Buffy began to laugh to herself picturing what her friends reactions would be if they could see this. She knew that Andrew and Xander would be amused if they could see this. They would think it was so cool.

For the second time in her dream she got that tingling feeling telling her that she was not alone. When she looked up she saw Angel standing there ready to fight the demons... all of them... by himself. _NO! They'll kill him!_ Buffy tried to stop it, but there was nothing she could do but watch as Angel ran at the demons and started attacking them. She wanted to help. She would have given anything to jump into the battle and help him but she couldn't. There was nothing she could do. _This is it. I'm going to be too late. They're going to kill him. _All of a sudden there was this great ball of light coming from behind him... and then... then there were other people there... helping him.

At first Buffy had no idea who any of them were, and she didn't really care. As long as they were helping Angel, she didn't care who they were. After a while though she noticed that one had platinum blond hair... hair she would recognize anywhere in an instant... "SPIKE!" She called out. She wished very much that he could hear her. That she could talk to him... help him. There were many things that she wanted to tell him. She also wanted to hit him. Beat him to a bloody pulp for what he had put her through. _I thought he was dead. He let me think that he was dead for the past nine months. He just let me think..._ She didn't have time to finish her thought. All of a sudden there was another flash, and this time it was Wesley who appeared. He looked shocked... and then this women who was wearing red and had blue hair... she looked like some sort of demon. Buffy kept staring at her wondering why she would effect Wesley this much. Then the woman began to change, her hair went from blue to brown, and she began to look more... human. Everyone seemed to be entranced by this, everyone seemed to be watching this woman and... "WESLEY?" She heard someone call out...

"No!" Buffy yelled as she sat up in bed. "I need to finish it! I need to see what happens! I need to know if..." but she didn't dare finish her sentence. _Bad Buffy! Don't go there! They are okay. they have to be okay. Angel and Spike... _"I have to find Willow" She quickly sprang out of bed and threw on the first articles of clothing she could find. _I don't care how I look. I have to find Willow now before... Bad Buffy! Don't think that! They'll be fine. They have to be fine._


	10. Not a Dream

"I'm not sure what to tell you Buffy. I don't think you were dreaming." Willow told her friend with concern in her eyes.

"I was dreaming. I know I was. I saw things… things that I shouldn't… couldn't know otherwise. I had to be dreaming. There is no other way to explain it." Buffy was really confused. She couldn't figure out what was going on. She had told Willow about her dream about hell. Willow wouldn't tell her what was going on but she kept insisting that it wasn't a dream.

"I'm not sure what it was…well… I have a theory…"

"What is it?" Buffy cut her off before she could finish. She had suspected that it had been more than a dream. After all it hadn't really felt like a slayer dream, it was more like when the first had sucked her into Angel's dream… only this time this was clearly not Angel's dream. This wasn't some memory from the past this was the present. This was what was really happening. Buffy didn't know how or why she knew that she just knew.

"well… it could be… it could be…"

"… just spit it out Willow!" Buffy was really starting to get impatient. _I don't have time for this. What I saw could be happening right now. I have to hurry, or Angel and Spike could die._ Willow looked at her friend menacingly. She didn't like how impatient Buffy was behaving, and its not like her theory is completely solid, but if its true than it could have serious consequences.

"I think that you may have been astral projecting." Willow finally told her friend.

"Astral WHAT?? I couldn't have been astral projecting. That's a witch thing… and Giles told us that it is a very advanced ability. I'm not a witch… you must be wrong… there's no way."

"Hear me out Buffy. I think you were actually in hell. I think that you astral projected yourself there some how. Anyone can astral project if they have a source for their power, and you have that source. That source is you slayer powers. You, like it or not, are a supernatural being, and that allows you some amount of magical ability. Besides, I don't' think you did it on your own…"

"What do you mean you don't think I did it on my own? Was someone messing with my head? Was someone in my head!?" Buffy seemed to be freaking out now. The idea of anyone being able to get into her head like that was just plain creepy. Willow had been in her head, but that was only to get her to come out of her catatonic state. Besides… that was Willow.

"Well you know how the First pulled you into Angel's dream back when we were in high school?"

"yeah…"

"I think that's sort of what happened to you last night. I think some greater power stepped in and allowed you to astral project into hell. I think that there was something there that you were supposed to see… something that might help us get everyone out of hell."

"I don't get it though… why would an evil higher power want to help us get Angel out of hell." Buffy was really confused now. It just didn't make any sense. Well… The astral projecting thing kind of did. It explained why everything had seemed so real while she was in hell, but the whole higher power stepping in… that was a different story. She only knew of one higher power that had been able to do that in the past… the First… and the first was gone, or out of commission, or what ever you call a big evil that can't be killed, but was recently beaten down very badly.

"maybe its not evil… maybe it's the Powers That Be that want your help. Maybe its some other great power… that just so happens to be good." Willow told her friend.

Willow knew that she was pulling at strings. In all of their time living on the hellmouth there were very few reasons to believe that there were any higher powers out there that weren't evil. She could really only point to three instances in seven years of fighting evil… The first time was when it snowed on Christmas that one time, the day that Buffy had convinced Angel not to kill himself. The second thing she could point to was the fact that Buffy had been in heaven. If there is a heaven than there must be a good higher power out there. The last instance she could point to was when she did the spell that made all of the potentials slayers. That time she had been the one to _feel_ it. All of the other times it had been someone else experiencing it with Willow just watching. That time had been different. It really convinced her that there was some good in the world… but that was almost a year ago now, and a lot had changed. Her girlfriend had died and come back to life, some great evil was after them _again,_ and the entire city of Los Angeles along with all of their friends living there had been sucked into a hell dimension.

"Right Willow, because the Powers That Be care sooo much about two vampires." Buffy's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "If they cared so much than they would have done something to stop this. Hell, they wouldn't have let Angel or Spike die the first time… you know Angel and Acathla, Spike and the first. If the Powers That Be really cared they would find a way for Angel to experience happiness without loosing his soul. The Powers That Be don't care about anyone except for themselves, and the people that they have chosen to be there warriors here on earth. Believe me. I know."

"You don't know Buffy." Willow said suddenly. "Believe it or not, the Powers That Be have taken a great interest in both Spike and Angel. How do you think Angel ended up in Sunnydale in the first place? How do you think Spike got back from hell after defeating the First?"

"The Powers That Be brought Spike back?' Buffy asked her friend.

"I don't actually know for sure… but I think that's who did it… or at least they had a hand in it." Willow explained.

"Well it's about time they started caring! Now maybe they can help us get them out of hell." Buffy said.

"That's what I was trying to say before… about the astral projection thing. Maybe the Powers intervened in order to show you what you needed to get everyone back into our dimension… maybe that was there plan to get everyone out of hell."

"Seems like a lame plan to me." Buffy said. "After all, I'm not very good with the whole research thing. I'm better at the hitting part. Couldn't they have sent you or Giles… You both know more about what the glowy ball thing might be. It's not like I'm the only one they could send. Both you and Giles are much better at the whole magic thing. There were a lot better people that they could send."

"I don't know if that's true Buffy." Willow explained. "It may be that they needed someone with a connection to the people in hell… or maybe they needed a slayer… or maybe they didn't want anyone with manifested magical abilities…. I don't know, but they chose you for a reason."

"But you meet all of those requirements… except for the whole slayer and magical power thing. You were their friends too." Buffy pointed out.

"Maybe they needed someone who was more than a friend. Someone who really cared… or loved the people that were in hell… or it could be just one of those slayer vampire things. You may not like it, but you have a connection to the undead because of your slayer powers… Or it could be that thing that you told me about back in college…"

"What thing?" Buffy asked.

"You know… that thing with Angel… how you always know when he's around whether you see him or not." Willow suggested.

"Oh, but that's like a slayer thing. He's a vampire and I'm a slayer and so that's why I can feel him. Right?"

"Do you feel when other vampires are around or is it just Angel? And if you do feel all vampires how do you know that it is him? Have you ever been able to tell whether or not Spike was around?' Willow quizzed her friend. She was actually really curious to know how this whole thing worked. That way she could help the new slayers out better; also it would give some insights into the whole Angel thing that Buffy hardly ever talked about.

"I don't know… I mean I CAN always tell when there is a vampire around. I guess that is one of the whole slayer power things, but I also always knew that it was Angel. Whenever he was around it was different. I just knew it was him. Actually that's kind of how I found him in my dream… or not dream… Astral projection or whatever. I always thought the reason that I knew it was him and not just any old vampire was because he had a soul. That's why he would feel different, but you know, no that I think about it I didn't know when Spike was around. Spike always just felt like a vampire. You think this might have something to do with my… what do you call it?"

"Well if you were Astral projecting, then you were actually in hell… or at least your soul was, so I guess you can call it your trip to hell. And that might have something to do with it, but I'm not sure. However that would be able to explain why the first had such an easy job pulling you into Angel's dream back in the day."

"Right well, as much as I enjoy reminiscing about past experiences, I really need to get downstairs to do training with the girls so lets get on with it okay Will? Buffy seemed irritated the same way that she always seemed whenever the topic of either Angel or Spike came up, and unfortunately due to the recent events it seemed to be coming up more often. Which of course led to a crankier Buffy and everyone was getting just a little sick of it.

"Fine Buffy, but I need you to tell me what you saw in your trip to hell. I need to know what was on the papers that you saw on the wall, and I need you to describe the 'glowy ball thing' to the best of your ability so that Giles and I can do research on it."


	11. Rhod Chan Cyneua

"AHA!" Willow said with pride. " I have found it! It's official 'glowy orb thing' has a name!"

"What is it Will?" Xander asked his old friend. "What is it called?"

"This text refers to a 'rhod chan cyneua' that is known to be in Los Angeles. See. The picture is just like Buffy described it. A glowy orb thing." Willow was very proud of herself. Buffy hadn't exactly given her a lot to go on. She just kept calling it a glowy orb thing, or a glowy ball of light. Fortunately for Willow, or for the people of LA depending on how you look at it, there aren't many glowing balls of light that just sit around for centuries not doing much. Usually glowing balls of light are for throwing at people and making them go poof.

"Rod chan china ooha? What the hell is that?" Xander asked her. _Why do these mystical thingys always have to have weird names. Why can't they just name it like it is: glowy orb thingy? After all, I think that pretty much covers it._

"Xander I know I've been gone for a while but I didn't know that you spoke welsh." Giles said as he walked into the room.

"I don't. That's just the name of the orb thing that Buffy told us about." Xander told him. All of a sudden Giles started to laugh. "I don't get it. What is so funny about an orb of light?" Xander asked.

"It's not the orb Xander, but the name. Rhod chan chyneua is Welsh for orb of light. I guess that shows just how creative some of these authors are, when they can't even come up with a real name for a mystical object." Giles was clearly amused by this. In fact Xander and Willow realized that this was the first time they had seen the older man laugh or even smile since they had left California about a year ago. Granted, they hadn't exactly seen him everyday, but when they had seen him he had always seemed so depressed. Maybe it had something to do with the whole Twilight thing.

Twilight had really been bothering all of them lately. Especially Buffy, but then again Buffy is the one who got beat up by the guy. What really bothered them though was something they hadn't been expecting. What really bothered them was the actions of the US military. After all they had been protecting the United States along with the rest of the world now for 8 years. They had even helped out the army back during Buffy and Willows first year of college. If they hadn't stepped in the US military definitely would have had their hands full with Adam. What did they get from the US military in return for their help: harassment. The US Military had practically declared war on them and the new slayers, and then taken up with Twilight. Now they not only had some super strong evil guy with idealist views after them, but also the most powerful military force in the world. While they weren't all that worried about the military aspect of the whole thing they knew first hand that the US military would have the money and resources behind it to accomplish quite a lot. Which of course was the main worry. They were going to need as much help as they possibly could in the upcoming apocalypse if they were going to make it through this.

"So" Giles continued, "The orb that Buffy told you about has a name after all. That's definetly good. What does it do?"

"It really doesn't say…" Willow answered.

"They almost never do. Either everyone who wrote these books didn't really know anything at all, or they were just way lazy." Xander added. Giles and Willow glared at him. "What? It's not my fault they were lazy! I'm just speaking the truth here!"

"Anyway, as I was saying… It really doesn't say much at all. It just goes on that it is a powerful orb filled with energy, and is believed to contain great power. It doesn't say whether that power is good or evil." Willow explained. _Xander is right about one thing; these books are hardly ever just flowing with helpful information._

"The real question is Willow, is whether or not this orb contains enough power to open a portal back from hell." Giles told her. "Especially since were not just talking about a few people here, but an entire city. The other question is; even if this orb does have enough power to get them out of hell, how do we tell them where to find it or even how to use it?"

"I haven't actually figured that out yet… but I have a few ideas." Willow told him. "I think maybe Buffy is supposed to send them a message or something, but I still haven't figured out how. She told me that last time they couldn't see or hear her. So I was thinking that we would send them a message…"

"How Willow? It's not exactly like they have interdimensional cell phones?" Xander pointed out.

"Actually they do… but that's not the point… Willow I'm not sure that is the best idea. You would be messing with very powerful magics…" Giles looked concerned.

"I know, but do you have any other ideas? Because I don't. Besides I think this is what Buffy is supposed to do. I think it's what the powers want. I think that's how she got sucked in the first time…" Willow said earnestly.

"Huh? What are you guys talking about? I am so confused…. And they have interdimensional cell phones?? Since when?" Xander asked them. He had know idea what was going on or what Giles and willow were talking about. He was missing something and he knew it. He didn't know what interdimensional cell phones had to do with Buffy, but he knew that Giles was worried, and he didn't like that. He didn't want Buffy to do anything dangerous. He also didn't want Willow to do anything dangerous, especially if it had to do with magic.

"Well there not actually cell phones… more like interdimensional communication channels, but the work like cell phones only with magic… but that's not the point. The point is that we have to get in contact with them somehow, and I know what I'm doing. I promise that I won't do anything too dangerous." Willow explained, before getting up and walking out the door. Giles followed her. They were still arguing back and forth all the way down the hallway before they finally turned the corner and Xander couldn't hear them any more.

"I'm still lost…" Xander mumbled to himself, before picking up the books and continuing to research.


	12. How do I tell her?

I know how to get them out of hell, but I don't want to tell Buffy, not after what she told me. I think it might just break her. Buffy has been through a lot. She has lost everything at one point or another, but the worst things she has had to deal with have been the loss of the ones that she loved.

I know what that's like because it has happened to me too. I have given up everything that I have and more for her, and I don't think that I will ever stop no matter how painful it is because I know that whatever I've had to suffer through, she's had it worse. I loved Tara. I loved her with my heart and soul, and I miss her everyday. At the time I felt like _I_ killed her. I felt like it was _my_ fault, but it wasn't. The same cannot be said for Buffy. She blamed herself for Spikes death. She blamed herself for her mother's death. She blamed herself for Angel's death. Twice… and she would have blamed herself for Dawnie's death if she hadn't been the one to jump that day. The thing of it is though, that Buffy didn't actually kill any of them… well except for Angel… but I'm not sure that counts since he did come back from hell and all… anyway, the point is that she has this tendency to take responsibility for everything terrible that happens in this world, including the actions of others… actions that she can't control.

I think that is part of why I keep Kennedy away from her. Kennedy is mine. She is mine and mine alone. She is the one thing in this world that I do not have to share with Buffy. I keep Kennedy away from her for two reasons. The first being that after Kennedy died, I was afraid that I would loose her the same way I lost Tara. I was afraid that I would loose her helping Buffy. I couldn't do that again. Not ever. We have all lost so much helping Buffy, and most days it doesn't matter because we fight the good fight with her. We save the world on an almost daily basis. The other reason that I keep Kennedy away from Buffy is because I don't want her to become Buffy. I don't want Kennedy to pick up on the whole blaming yourself thing that Buffy is so good at. I want Kennedy to be happy, and usually she is. She has been a little upset with me ever since I brought her back from the dead. She wasn't gone nearly as long as Buffy so I don't think that it affected her as much, so it's not that. She seems unhappy because I keep her away from Buffy, and don't bring her in on our "Scooby meetings". She just doesn't seem to understand why I want to keep her away from them. The other day I sat her down and explained to her why I was keeping her away from the rest of the gang, and I think she understood where I was coming from, but I could tell that she didn't like it. I think in the future I am just going to have to let her come with me…

Anyway… I think I know how to get everyone out of hell. Usually when I figured out something like this it would be all "Yay me!", but not this time. This time I don't think that Buffy can do it. It's not like she hasn't moved on and all, but I think that this would disturb her to no end. I don't care what she says, I don't care what anyone says, she still cares for him, and she isn't going to like this. Normally I would try to find another way around it, but I don't think there is another way. It's not exactly like they write "How to save and entire city from hell for Dummies". I just hope that she can do it. I just hope that she can tell him. I know I'm sure as hell glad I don't have to…

I remember the last time that I had to go and tell Angel bad news. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was right after Buffy had died, and when he walked in with his friends they all looked so happy… that is… until they saw me. I didn't have to even say a word and he knew. Granted I was crying and I looked like my best friend had just died… which she had… but he knew. He knew that she was gone. The minute I looked up at him it was like I had to watch his heart break. It was terrible. I knew how much he loved her, and I knew how much she had loved him. He just looked at me and said "It's Buffy." Thank god Cordelia was there… wow I never though I would actually say that, but it's true. She had the presence of mind to get Fred out of there before Angel started to loose it. She knew that this was going to be hard on him, on everyone, but it was going to be the worst for him. His friends kept staring at me. Gunn finally asked, "Who is she? Who is Buffy?".

Wesley just turned to Cordelia and said "They don't know do they?"

"No." She responded. "Get Fred out of here Gunn. Take her upstairs. We'll explain everything later. I promise."

After Gunn had taken Fred upstairs I told them all to sit down and proceeded to explain the whole story… about Dawn, Glory, and eventually Buffy. It was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do. It had taken every ounce of self control to go there, I would have given anything to have sent Giles, or Xander, or hell… even Spike, but it had to be me. I was the only one who ever really understood. After all, what Angel did to Buffy, Oz did to me.

Once I had finished telling them all what had happened Wesley and Cordelia were both sitting there crying. Angel was just staring. It seemed like he was in shock. After a few minutes he just got up and went upstairs without saying a word. Cordelia tried to stop him, but it was no use. He passed Gunn on the stairs as if Gunn wasn't even there. He just walked away. When Gunn came down he had, needless to say, a million questions.

I just sat there as Cordelia and Wesley tried to explain the entire situation to Gunn. He had known about the whole curse thing, and about there being this girl, but not much more than that. Having to sit down and hear the whole story all over again was like reliving it. I kept picturing Buffy when we were in high school. How happy we all were… how happy she was. It was then that I realized just how much had changed since we had graduated. It was then that I realized just how much Buffy had been through in the past year or so… how much we all had been through.

That night was one of the hardest nights of my life… but it was also the night that I vowed to do whatever I had to do to bring her back. I wanted her to be able to live her life again. I wanted her to be happy. I though about her suffering in what had to be a hell dimension, and I just couldn't live with it. I didn't stop. I didn't think. All I knew was that I wanted her back. I needed her back, and so did everyone else. I just can't ask Buffy to do that to someone that she cares about. It's just not fair. How do you ask someone to tell someone that they care about that the only way to save the world… the absolutely only way to do it… is to take away the one thing that they want most in the world. It's one thing when you volunteer for it, but to ask someone… to do that? Well it's just plain unfair. How am I going to tell her? How will I tell her that the instructions are clear?

… in order to use the orb, and send the entire city of LA back to our dimension, Angel has to die…


	13. Anything is better

Most people have no idea what hell really is… but I do. They think that hell is all about the fire and brimstone… but its not. There is fire and brimstone in most of the hell dimensions, however some go the ice route, and a select few look a hell of a lot like our dimension. What makes them hell has nothing to do with the surroundings, or even the demons, but rather the way that they get into your head. Being in hell is torture and it slowly drives you crazy. There is usually physical pain, and torture, but what really makes it hell… is the way it takes everything away from you that you have ever cared about… forever. There isn't supposed to be a way out of hell. There aren't any built in escape routes… there is no hope… for anything. The only way out is if some higher power decides that it needs you in its great fight for good or evil… or if you happen to find a brilliant physicist and the books left behind by the rulers of the dimension.

Wolfram and Hart are experts on hell… they really are… because of all the times I've been to hell, all the years I've spent in hell, this time has been the worst by far. Not did I get sucked into hell this time, but everyone that I cared about, and millions of other innocent people who have no idea why this is happening to them. They could have just taken me, but that wouldn't have been good enough. That wouldn't have been terrible enough. They took everyone, and then they made sure that there was no way I'd be able to help… or at least they thought that they did… and there torture didn't stop there either. They gave me the one thing I had wanted more than anything, they gave me my humanity, but they gave it to me in a place where not only would it mean nothing, but it would most surely get me and everyone I cared about killed.

The problem with evil though is that evil is short sited. Evil thinks that it is smarter than everyone else, and it never looks in the right places for what happens. Evil always goes after the big guns, but forgets about the little guy. Evil always misses the details. Big surprise here… Wolfram and Hart is evil… and they messed up… again. They may have expected me to double cross them like that, and they may have been expecting my friends to be in on it, but they never expected me to go after the Black Thorn, and they never expected the Powers that Be to be involved in it. They also won't be expecting what's coming… no one will be.

Wolfram and Hart think that they have taken everything away from me, but they haven't. They think that they've succeeded in taking everything that could possibly give me a reason to fight. They're wrong. I don't fight evil because I think I'm going to get some sort of reward out of it… I gave up on that along time ago. I fight evil because it's right, and because someone has to do it. Buffy is the one who showed me that. She tried to give up, she tried to turn her back on her calling, but she never really could. She's given up everything, even died to save the world twice, but she keeps on fighting. She is hope… she shows the world that there is a reason to keep fighting, and I will never give up, because she wouldn't want me too… she wouldn't let me.

She's the one who told me what I had to do. I don't know how she knew, or how she did it, but she did. When she told me… I haven't seen her like that in a long time… she looked like someone just killed her best friend. I hope she understands why I am going to do this… that it's not just about getting out of hell. There is nothing for me here… no reason to go on, even if I am human, because it doesn't matter… none of it matters. I can't just sit by and watch all these people burn in hell for something that _I_ did. I might deserve hell, but they don't. Anything is better than staying here… anything at all… even death.

I hope she understands that…


	14. Coming Home

Willow had been surprised by how easy it was to convince Buffy that they should take a portal to Los Angeles. She simply had to remind her that with the Los Angeles International airport out in hell, they would have to fly 13 hours to San Diego, and then drive another 2 ½ hours up to Los Angeles. Not only would the trip cost a fortune, but then they would run the risk of being late. Normally Buffy would do anything to avoid using a portal because they made her sick, but this time there was almost nothing that could make her even want to run the risk of being late.

Tonight was the night, the night that they were going to bring Los Angeles back from hell. For most of the girls this was an exciting night. For Buffy and her friends, it was bitter sweet. They all knew that they were doing the right thing, but they weren't sure what the consequences of ripping an entire major metropolitan area out of hell were going to be. They were also worried as to how the people of Los Angeles were going to deal with having spent months in a hell dimension. Worst of all though, they were pretty sure that not all of their friends were going to be coming back. They weren't entirely sure who all had made it after the fall, and they weren't sure who was going to survive the coming battle, which would provide the distraction necessary for them to get out of hell. They did know one thing; Angel was going to die in order for this to work.

Telling him had been one of the hardest things Buffy had done in a while. She thought that he should have been more upset, should have cared that he wasn't going to make it out of this alive, but he didn't seem to care at all. He just agreed to go along with their plan, with very little hesitation at all. Buffy knew better than anyone what it's like to die in order to save the world, but even she thought that this should have been harder for him. She was asking him to die to get people out of hell. Again.

They weren't sure what to expect when Los Angeles returned so to be on the safe side, they were bringing about thirty slayers with them. They also had another 30 slayers on call ready to go at the castle if something went wrong. She told the girls that they were going to where the Santa Monica beach was before the city disappeared to wait for it to reappear. They were not to leave the beach until she told them to. The plan was simple; all they had to do was get the matching orb from their dimension to the same location as the orb in hell. They would use a GPS system to make sure they were in the right place since all of the landmarks were gone. Then they would wait on the beach for the city to reappear. Angel and his friends would take care of the rest from their side. Angel's blood was the key to activating the portal, just like with Acathla. They had to be ready to rid the city of any demons, which had hitched a ride back to Los Angeles. Buffy made sure to warn them that if they found any annoying bleached blonde men, that they are to call her right away, and under no circumstances kill him. Also any demons claiming to know her, Willow, Faith, Angel, or Spike, are not to be killed. She purposely had left out that Angel and Spike were vampires, well at least Spike is, she wasn't sure what Angel is now. She didn't know how the girls would react to the idea of working with vampires, souls or not.

As they were about to enter the portal Buffy reminded them all one last time to have their bags ready in case the portal made them sick. Then she walked into the portal. Each of the girls followed behind her two at a time, with Willow and Faith brining up the rear. Xander, Giles, Andrew, and Dawn wished them luck as Faith and Willow walked through the portal. The portal closed behind them with a flash.

When they had all arrived, and all gotten control of their gag reflexes once more, Willow grabbed the GPS out of her bag and walked over to the location they had decided on. There she placed the rhod chan cyneua on the ground. She then proceeded to walk back over to the others and wait. They all sat there facing what looked like a large barren desert. Of course, that large barren desert had once been Los Angeles. None of them had actually seen the city since it had been sucked into hell. It was hard for any of them to look at, but particularly hard for Buffy, Faith, and Willow since they had been there before. When choosing which girls to bring with them, they had specifically brought girls who had never been to LA so that they wouldn't be as disturbed by the sight. Although it hadn't really worked since no one seemed able to take their eyes off the barren wasteland. It was so weird to think that it had once been a large city. It was only thirty minutes, but it felt like forever, before the ground started to shake. A few of the girls looked scared, some looked terrified, but all of them stood their ground. They all knew what was coming. All of a sudden the rhod chan cyneua started to hum and grow. It got larger and louder until it was too bright to look at and all of them had to cover their ears. Then there was a large sonic boom, and the rhod chan cyneua seemed to explode flashing a light so bright that it blinded all of them temporarily before disappearing. When were finally able to see again the barren wasteland wasn't there anymore. In it's place was a large city gleaming in the night.


	15. Los Angeles

Buffy, Willow and Faith approached the city cautiously. They had told the girls to stay down by the ocean as they slowly mad their way back up the beach towards the boardwalk. The city was glistening in the moonlight. If they hadn't known any better they wouldn't have known that just seconds ago it had been in hell. When they made it over by the pier, they were surprised to find nobody there. The battle, which had been used as a distraction would have gone down over by the pier and they had been half expecting to find their friends here, but then again nothing ever was that easy. They always had to do things the hard way.

"I think we are going to have to search the city in order to find them." Willow said.

"I agree, but I haven't the faintest idea as to where to start looking, do you?" Buffy asked.

"Not really" Willow replied

"I do." Faith told them. "I can think of two places right off the top of my head."

"Do share" Buffy told her

"I think the most obvious one is the offices of Wolfram and Hart. If that is where Angel was when this all went down, then its possible that they ended back up there. The only other place would be the Hyperion. Someplace where they would feel safe." Faith had spent more time in Los Angeles than the other two, and was the only one who had actually been to both places.

"All right. Where do we start?" Buffy asked her.

"The Hyperion is on the way to Wolfram and Hart, so we should start there." Faith told them.

"Works for me." Willow said.

As they made there way back down to the beach they began to notice that people were beginning to come out of their houses. Some of them seemed a little disoriented, but for the most part it was as if nothing had happened. When they reached the girls Buffy filled them in and then motioned for Faith to lead the way. Buffy and Willow followed her in silence. All of them were wondering the same things; what happened, will people know about the demons now, who survived?

"This way." Faith said suddenly. They had been walking down one street now for a while, but Faith now motioned for them to follow her. "The Hyperion is that large building there on the corner." As they approached it, Buffy seemed to get more anxious. She hadn't said anything since they had left the beach, but now she looked like she was about to break out into a flat out sprint. So far they hadn't met any demons, but Buffy wasn't sure whether that was a bad thing or not. At least demons may have some idea where their friends were.

It seemed like forever before they finally reached the Hyperion. Halfway down the block Buffy felt like someone was watching her and Willow heard her whisper "They're here. They're in the alley behind the hotel. I can sense them." Willow hadn't heard Faith or any of the other slayers mention being able to sense anyone, but then again Buffy had always been more highly a tuned then the other girls, so she took her word for it, and told Faith to lead them to the alley behind the hotel.

When they turned the corner into the alley behind the hotel they could not believe what they saw. Four people were in the alley. Two of them were standing over the other two who were lying sprawled out on the ground. One of the two that were standing was definetly a demon. She had bright blue hair, and a skin tight red suit. Both Willow and Faith thought that she looked oddly familiar, but neither one had any idea as two why. The other person standing was a man with bleached blonde hair. Buffy, Faith, and Willow all recognized him instantly. They couldn't see the other two very well because they were lying down presumably unconscious.

"SPIKE!!" Buffy yelled, and went running up to him. She motioned for Faith and Willow to stay at the entrance of the alleyway with the other slayers. She wasn't sure what condition they would be in, and she wasn't sure what sort of stories Spike would be blurting out. Most importantly though she didn't want to have to explain to the girls why they weren't going to slay a vampire that in their dreams had gone around killing slayers. "Are you okay? Are you alive? What is going on here?"

Spike suddenly turned around to face her, and saw Buffy, Faith, Willow, and the slayers all staring at him. Illyria also turned to look at them. She clenched her fists and prepared to fight them. "Don't blue!" Spike told her. "They're with us. Their here to help us."

"I don't need their help. I don't need anyone's help…"

"Yeah I know. You're Illyria. God king yadadad… I get it. Just don't start pummeling them okay?" Spike cut her off before she could finish. "Slayer!" He yelled. "Am I ever glad to see you!"

When Buffy reached Spike she hugged him "I'm so glad you're alive. You have no idea how hard its been…" and then she hit him hard in the jaw. "That is for not telling us that you were alive." Then she hit him again. "That is for not calling and letting us know that you guys needed help." Faith saw that Buffy was pummeling Spike, and she knew that wasn't the best idea, so she quietly told Willow to wait with the girls, and ran up behind Buffy to top her. Buffy was about to hit him again when Faith came up from behind her and grabbed her fist.

Faith stopped her gasped and said "Buffy look!" That's when Buffy noticed the other two men lying on the ground unconscious. Buffy looked like she had just been hit by a car. There lying on the ground was Angel.

"Angel?" she asked. "Spike, is he…?"

"Alive?" he finished for her. "Depends on what you mean by alive. He's not alive in the traditional sense… or at least no more alive than I am, but if you mean walking, talking, not breathing, can't go out in the daytime, has to drink blood alive? Then yeah. He's alive. As alive as he ever has been… or at least in the last 200 years."

"So he's a vampire again?" Buffy asked him, before walking past Spike over towards Angel.

"Peaches? Of course he's a bloody vampire. What else would he be?... and what do you mean by again?" Spike said turning to watch Buffy as she walked past him.

"Is Gunn okay?" Faith half whispered, and then motioned for Willow to come forward with the girls. She knew that Willow would want to see this, and she knew that if Gunn and Angel weren't okay that Willow may be the only one able to help them. Willow followed her instructions and slowly led the girls farther into the alleyway. _Who's Gunn?_ Buffy thought to herself.

"Charlie-boy? Oh he'll be fine. He's just recovering from the trip back from hell. He was a vampire back in hell, and I think he's just adjusting to being _alive_ again." Spike explained, while still watching Buffy. "Buffy. What do you mean by _again_?"

"Who is _she_?" Buffy heard one of the slayers ask. She hadn't really been paying attention to Spikes little rambles. She hadn't heard anything after "he's alive". She went over and kneeled down beside Angel. He didn't have a pulse or breathe, but then she hadn't really expected him to, especially after what Spike had just told them. Her slayer senses were telling her that he was a vampire, so as long as he wasn't a pile of dust, that pretty much meant he'd be okay. _He's a vampire again. I can live with that. It's certainly an improvement over dead… well dead in the final dust sense… come on Angel wake up!_

"Oh! Blue here?!" Spike asked, his attention turning once more towards Faith, Willow, and the other slayers. "This is Illyria."

"Is… is she a demon?" one of the smaller girls asked. She was one of the newer girls and had only been living with them at the castle for the past two weeks or so. This was her first field assignment, and she was pretty scared. Buffy had only brought her with because she wanted her to get some field experience, and she had a feeling there wouldn't be too many problems on this mission.

"Yes. She's a demon." Spike replied.

"I am more than just a demon. I am Illyria God King of Earth. I may allow you to accompany me as my pet, but that does not mean I will tolerate disrespect from a leech like you." Illyria spat.

"Wow. She's a real friendly one you got there Spike." Faith told him. "Wait a minute… she looks an awful lot like…"

"Fred?" Willow finished for her. "Spike, Why does she look like Fred? Where is Fred? I see you, Angel, and Gunn, where are the others? Where are Wesley, Lorne, Connor, and Fred?" Willow was suddenly very worried. She knew from what Buffy had told her that Wesley had been in hell with Angel, but she didn't know whether he was still alive. She also hadn't heard anything about Lorne, Connor or Fred, mostly because Buffy really didn't know who they were.

"She is referring to the shell. The shell has memories of these two women. They came to help when…"

"The SHELL?" Willow cut her off. She was getting angry now. If this Illyria was talking about what she thought that she was talking about that meant that Fred had died. "The SHELL? Spike?"

"How dare you interrupt me you insolent swine!! I am Illyria god king of earth, and you and your leeches need to learn a little more respect!" Illyria was obviously upset. "I have a great desire to do violence to things right now, and while doing violence to you will be easy and will give me little joy, it might just have to do."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You may be strong Illyria, but these are slayers. I don't think they had slayers in your time, did they?" Spike warned her. He knew that Illyria was strong, but even she, the god king of earth, would have trouble taking on thirty of the girls at once.

"Besides, you do not want to mess with Red here." Faith added.

"Um Faith?" one of the girls asked.

"Yeah" she responded.

"Is there something wrong with Miss Summers?" It was then the Faith and Willow noticed that Buffy hadn't moved since she had first noticed Angel lying on the ground. She was kneeled next to him staring at him and seemed to be whispering something.

"B!" Faith said trying to get Buffy's attention, but Buffy didn't even turn to look at her.

"Hey Red. You think there is anything you can do to help Angel and Charlie-boy here. As much as I love all this catching up, it's late, and we really should get going. We still have to find Wesley."

"Sure. I can try something. Maybe a healing spell might help." Willow told her and then went over towards Buffy and the two men lying on the ground.

"Wesley…" Illyria mumbled and then began to stare off into space.

"What's her deal?" Faith asked.

"She's in love with him, Faith, or at least Fred was in love with him and she is feeling those memories. We're not exactly sure which." Spike explained.

"That's Fred?! I know she looks like her, but the last time we met she wasn't all 'I'm a god king' if you know what I mean." Faith was seriously confused now, and a little angry. She didn't like it when people messed with her friends. She may not have known Fred very well, but she had liked her. She seemed like a nice person, and besides she was Angel's friends and that made her okay in Faith's book. "What the hell happened to Fred?!" Faith asked Spike. Unless he had a really good explanation, she was going to start pummeling him too. _Does Angel know about this? He has to have known about this. Why didn't he call us?_

"It's a really REALLY long story that I'm not gonna get into just yet…" Faith was glaring at him, and even Willow had looked up from trying to help Angel and Gunn to glare at him too. "It's not MY fault ya know. If peaches here hadn't gone off to Wolfram and Hart… oh don't give me that look… You people aren't exactly blame free either what with the 'we don't trust you any more, we're too good for you' bit. You should of seen the look on peaches face here when Giles told him that he wasn't going to help because we weren't to be trusted… not to mention what he did to the phone." Spike was clearly amused by the image of Angel throwing the phone after talking to Giles. "There is a whole lot of blame to go around here, and I'm just not ready to get into it just yet… so if you don't mind lets drop the subject."

"Is he going to be okay willow?" Buffy asked her friend.

"He's going to be just fine Buffy. He's just unconscious right now which is to be expected… I'm not sure how, or why he's here, but from what I can tell he'll be just fine. Gunn here on the other hand… he may need some time."

"What do you mean?" Faith asked concerned after overhearing their conversation. She turned to face Willow. She too had been worried about Angel, but like Willow was more concerned with Gunn, who was now kneeling beside him. After all, he was human, or at least he was the last time she saw him.

"Physically he seems to be okay, but if he remembers anything like Spike here seems too… well it may take him a while to adjust to the idea of having been a vampire." Willow explained.

"Oh. Yeah. Last time I heard, he wasn't too fond of vampires… well at least vampires who aren't Spike and Angel." Faith looked defeated. The last thing she wanted was for another one of her friends going down the path that she had. It didn't matter if he was a vampire when he did those things, because it would still bother him. He would still see them in his mind every single day. It didn't seem to make a difference to either Spike or Angel that it hadn't really been THEM that killed those people. To them, they did it. That's who they saw kill those people. That's who they remember killing those people… and because they were still vampires deep down, a part of them still enjoyed watching those people die. Hopefully Gunn wouldn't have to deal with that. Hopefully, since he was no longer a vampire he wouldn't have to deal with the pain of still enjoying it. Then again, she was human too, and as much as she hated to admit it there was a part of her that had enjoyed watching those people die too.

"Buffy?" Faith heard a familiar voice say weakly behind her.

"Angel" Buffy responded.

"Did we do it? Are we still in hell?" Angel asked her as he sat up looking around.

"Yeah. We did it. You're not in hell anymore." Buffy told him. "Are you okay? I thought you were… You're supposed to be dead?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem like anything has changed. It's like we never even went to hell. Maybe it just restored everything to the way it was before hell. At least that would explain why I'm here." Angel finally noticed the thirty or so girls standing in the alleyway by Spike and Illyria. "Who are they?"

"Those are some of the new slayers." Willow responded "Hey there sleepyhead. I wasn't sure how long it would take you to wake up. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Where is everyone? Spike, Gunn and Illyria are here, where is everyone else?"

Angel asked her. "Is Gunn okay? Is he… alive?"

"Well, Red here says he is, but he sure doesn't look very alive." Faith told him. When he looked at her she added. "He's human Angel. As long as he wakes up soon, he's going to be fine." She knew that she was half lying to her friend, but she figured it would be best if he didn't worry. Besides they had no way of knowing before Gunn woke up how he would be affected by his recent stint as a vampire.

"Spike, Where are the others?" Angel asked.

"I don't know peaches. You're guess is as good as mine. Although since we ended up right back where we we're before we got sucked into hell, my guess is that the others ended up where they were when we got sucked into hell." Spike explained turning to face the other vampire.

"We have to find them. Now." Angel said trying to stand up.

"You aren't going anywhere mister." Buffy told him, while forcing him back down onto the ground. "Not until we know what is going on here. There could still be people from Wolfram and Hart after you guys, and I'm not going to risk you all getting hurt just because your impatient." She told Angel firmly.

"Buffy, I have to find them. It's my fault…" Angel began to explain, but before he could finish Buffy slapped him lightly and said "No. We are not going down that road. You're damn right about it being you're fault that the Senior Partners were pissed off and sucked the city into hell, but you had no way of knowing exactly what they were going to do. Yes. You should have asked for help, but you didn't. So there is no point in dwelling on the subject. Right now I need you to focus so that we can gather everyone up and get the hell out of here. It's late. I'm tired, and we still have a lot to get through before I am going to get any sleep. So before you go all 'It's my fault' on us, just stop." Buffy had had a feeling he was going to blame all of this on himself. He always did. That's just Angel. "Now the theory seems to be that everyone ended up where they were before you guys got sucked into hell, so who is it that we need to find, and where were they when the city got sucked into hell?" Buffy asked them.

"Illyria, you left Wesley where he died right?" Spike asked her trying to be helpful

"yes. I saw no point in moving his body." She responded.

"Good. Well at least we know where he most likely is. Angel, Do you know where Lorne went?" Spike asked now turning back towards Angel.

"No. He wouldn't tell me where he was going." Angel told him dejectedly. "Connor can't be to far from here though. I last saw him back at the office, where I told him to leave because it wasn't safe. Looking back on it, I guess it really didn't matter where he was since we all ended up in hell anyway."

"Angel. What did I just get finished saying? I told you. We really don't have time for you to go all broody on us…" Buffy said, but was cut off when Gunn started to wake up.

"Whoa! Where the hell am I?" Gunn asked.

"You're in the alleyway behind the hotel." Faith told him. "Is that you Faith? Man are you a sight for soar eyes! How did you get here? Did you get sucked into hell too?"

"No. You're not in hell anymore. Look around." She told him. Gunn sat up. At first the world seemed to spin as all the blood went rushing back to his head, but once he could see straight he noticed that none of the buildings had mouths, and the sky was dark. The sun was gone, and the moon was shining brightly in the clear black sky. The next thing he noticed hit him the hardest… he couldn't smell blood anymore… he didn't have any urge to kill anything… his heart was beating… "I'm not a vampire!" He said with a big smile on his face. "I'm alive. My heart is beating!" Then he turned and looked at Angel and suddenly being alive didn't seem quite as fun. "You're a vampire again. Aren't you?"

"Hey. I'm just glad to be walking around… or I will be if someone hear would let me get up." He told his friend before turning to look at Buffy grinning.

"What is up with all this again crap?" Spike asked. "You people are talking about Angel aren't you? He's a vampire, just like me. Always has been as long as I've known him."

"He's a WHAT?!" They heard one of the slayers yell. All of a sudden all of the girls had spikes in their hands and were getting ready to start staking things.

"Can I do more violence now please?" Illyria asked Spike.

"NO!" Spike, Faith, Willow, Angel and Buffy all said at once.

"Uh guys? As much as I hate to admit it, letting Illyria 'do more violence' may not be the worst idea cuz I don't think those girls look to happy." Gunn pointed out.

"There with us." Buffy explained before turning and addressing the girls. "Put those down! All of you! There is going to be no staking tonight unless I say so."

"But Miss Summers, they're VAMPIRES." One of the girls argued. "The blonde one said so, and don't we usually stake vampires?"

"Yes" Buffy answered, "But not these vampires. Look it's a really long story, which I will explain once we get back, but for now there will be no staking of either Spike or Angel here. If you see any other vampires though, have at it."

"Okay… it's your call…" the girl responded. "… but that doesn't mean that we have to like it."

"You're right. It is my call and…" but before she could finish there was a large noise at the other end of the alley by the street. They all heard some fighting and yelling. Angel leaped up and he, Buffy, Faith, Illyria, and Spike all got to the ready and began making there way to the other end of the alley. They couldn't see what was going on at first with all of the girls in the way but when they finally made it out into the street they saw a teenage boy and a green demon with red horns taking on three of the slayers. Well, actually the boy was taking on two of the girls while the demon was cowering in a corner trying not to get beaten to badly.

"Everybody Stop what you're doing RIGHT NOW!" Buffy yelled. Everyone obeyed and stopped fighting. The boy and the demon looked up.

"Angelcakes?" Lorne asked.

"Dad?" Connor asked.

"Oh this is sooo going to be good." Spike said aloud.


	16. In the Alleyway

"Okay. What the HELL is going on here?!" Buffy yelled. She turned and looked angrily at Angel who was standing next to her. "Angel? Care to explain?!" Everyone turned to look at her and Angel. Buffy looked really peeved now. Angel looked scared.

"Uh… This is Lorne. He used to work with us… and this…" Angel said gesturing towards Connor, "is Connor… he's my son. I told you about him remember?"

"Yeah. I remember." It had been a long awkward conversation, which had just left Buffy even more confused than she had been before. She understood the idea of a mystical pregnancy, and even the idea of two vampires conceiving a child this wasn't all that weird considering the whole Dawn thing, but what had really gotten to her was the idea of Angel sleeping with Darla. It was confusing for two reasons. One, Darla was dead. She had seen Angel stake her right before her very eyes, and vampires weren't supposed to come back from the dead… or at least from being dusted, so the idea of her walking around sleeping with her ex… was just a little too weird even for her. The other reason was that she knew about the curse, and she knew that Angel knew too. He knew full well what could've happened and he went and slept with her anyway. That meant that either he was really really stupid, or he just didn't care anymore. That meant he had tried to get rid of his soul... an idea that really bothered her more than she would like. "So this is Connor?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah" Angel replied.

Buffy turned and looked back at the three girls who had attacked Connor and Lorne. "It's okay girls, you can let them go. They're with us." The three girls backed down.

"You're gonna just let them go because a vampire says so?" Buffy heard one of the girls ask. "Since when do we trust vampires."

"Alright. I am only going to say this one more time so you all better listen up. Angel and Spike here are more than just vampires. They're good. They have souls just like you and I. I don't want to hear any arguments from any of you because none of you have done for me and for the world what they've done. They've sacrificed their lives and their happiness countless times so that people like you wouldn't have to sacrifice yours. The only people who have done more for this world are me, Xander, Willow, and Giles, so if Angel or Spike says that someone is okay then they are okay. Got it!?" Buffy looked really peeved now. She hated having to explain herself more than once, and she hated having to explain the whole Angel and Spike thing. It was really getting old.

"… but Mr. Giles said…" one of the girls protested, but Buffy just stared her down.

"Mr. Giles said what exactly?" She asked trying to maintain her composure.

"Mr. Giles said that all vampires were evil, and not to be trusted no matter what. He said that sometimes in the past vampires had tried to fool you into thinking that they were good, but really they weren't and they are not to be trusted." The girl explained.

Buffy looked like she was going to hit something. _Giles is going to have a lot of explaining to do when we get back_ she thought to herself. "Mr. Giles is short sighted and angry" she said, "and clearly it is Mr. Giles who cannot be trusted." Willow gave her a look as if to tell her off, but Buffy didn't care. Giles had really pissed her off this time. _How dare he go behind my back like this? He purposely made it so that these girls would question my authority when it came to Angel and Spike. What was he thinking?!_

"Angel." Buffy said turning back towards him. "I am really want to get out of here, so if you could tell us where the others are that would be great."

"Don't" Gunn whispered under his breathe quietly to Angel. He knew that the vampire would be able to hear him when the others wouldn't. "How do we know that we can trust them? Yeah, sure, Faith and Willow are with them, but I have no idea who this blonde chick is and those girls with her clearly have it in for you and Spike."

"It's okay Gunn. We can trust them." Angel told him. "I don't know where the others are. Wesley is probably in the same place that Illyria left him, but other than that I just don't know."

"Well how many more people are we talking about?" Faith asked.

"Wesley. Well and Groo… if we can find him." Angel responded.

"What about Nina and Gwen?" Connor spoke up for the first time. "They helped us out big time in hell. We can't just leave them here."

"Nina! You mean werewolf girl?" Spiked asked, "hah! This is gonna be better than I thought. Yeah, Angel we can't just leave them behind." Angel shot Spike a look.

"Shut up Spike. You're not helping." Angel told him before facing Connor and saying "We don't know where they are. If we can find them… then they can come with us… but we can't stay here forever looking for them… besides… they may not want to be found."

"Umm I know this may be a stupid question, but what about Cordelia?" Willow asked them. Everyone of them turned to look at her, all of them had this sad look on there face. Angel looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"Yeah. Where is she? Last time I saw you guys she was busy bossing everyone around, but now she's nowhere to be found and not a one of you has even mentioned her since you came back." Faith pointed out.

Everyone turned and looked at Angel expectantly. If anyone knew what was going on, especially if it had anything to do with Cordelia, he would know. Gunn, Conner, Lorne, and Spike looked at him knowing that this was not going to be an easy topic of discussion.

"I got it man." Gunn said to Angel. "Cordy died a few months ago."

"What happened?" Willow asked shocked by the news that their friend had been killed. _Maybe there is something I can do…_

"There is nothing you can do Willow." Angel told her. "Cordy is on a higher plain now. She's a higher being… and the last time we tried to bring her back… well that didn't go so well."

"How…?" Willow began to ask, but before she could finish Gunn caught her off.

"It's a really long story. Basically this Demon guy named Skip tricked her into thinking that he worked for the powers that be. He then tricked her into becoming part demon, and then later on a higher being. There wasn't anything any of us could do to stop it. Then last year after spending the whole summer on a higher plane, and a bunch of failed efforts to bring her back she just reappeared on our doorstep, so to speak, with absolutely no memories whatsoever. Lorne did a nifty spell to bring her memories back, and that's when the whole stone beast, reign of fire thing happened."

"What the hell is he talking about Willow?" Buffy asked.

"You remember last year when I told you that I had to go to Los Angeles?"

"yeah" she responded

"Well, this is why… sort of." She said looking at Gunn as if to say "you might want to skip over the whole Angelus bit. She's not going to be too happy to hear about it."

"Anyway… after you and Faith helped us with our little… uh… problem, We found out that Cordelia had this whole mystical pregnancy deal going on. This is where the story gets complicated, but basically when Cordy came back from Heaven or wherever it was that she went to, this higher being demon thing called Jasmine hitched a ride. It took over her body and convinced her to bring for the beast and well… you know. After that the thing gave birth to itself, leaving Cordy in a mystical coma thing that eventually killed her."

"Why do I get the feeling like I'm not being told the whole story here." Buffy asked suddenly. She didn't like being kept in the dark, especially where her friends where concerned. "Why exactly were you in LA last year Willow?"

"I… I…" Willow stuttered looking around at the others for assistance. She knew that they would have to tell Buffy about the whole Angelus thing eventually but she didn't think that this was the time or the place. She knew that Buffy would be really pissed at everyone involved. She'd be pissed at Angel and his friends for even thinking the idea of taking Angel's soul out, and she'd be pissed at Willow for not telling her what had happened.

"Angel?" Buffy asked staring him down. If there was anyone that she could get through to it would be him. She knew that all she had to do was get angry at him and he would eventually give in. "What aren't they telling me?" Everyone was staring at them now.

"Now isn't the time Buffy. I'll tell you later." Buffy glared at him "I promise." He told her. Buffy still didn't look happy but she backed down. Whatever they had left out couldn't have been good or they wouldn't have been hiding it from her. It also had to be important for the same reason.

"Wait. Did you say Buffy?" Gunn asked. For the first time Angel realized that not everyone knew who she was. Gunn had heard that name so many times over the past year that there was know way he wasn't going to recognize it. Angel and Spike were always arguing over Buffy this and Buffy that. Each one had spent numerous hours professing their love for this woman, and he wanted to know why. If this was her, he wanted to know. "Buffy. As in _the_ Buffy? You know the woman that the two of you" he said pointing at Angel and Spike "have been fighting over for the past oh… nine months!"

_They've been fighting over me?_ Buffy thought to herself somewhat flattered by the fact that they had been fighting over her… but not that flattered. _That's so… annoying! Where do they get off fighting over me. I mean I know that I told Spike that I loved him before he died, but he came back and he did even _call_ me. And Angel… what makes him think he has the right to… he's the one that dumped me!_

"Yes Gunn. This is Buffy." Angel told him. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what was coming next, especially since Buffy had been glaring at him and Spike ever since Gunn had mentioned that he and Spike had been fighting over her.

"You're Buffy?" Lorne asked her as if he hadn't heard what Angel had just said. Buffy just nodded. She was getting really sick and tired of nobody listening to her. "It's very nice to finally meet the infamous Buffy. These two," he said pointing to Angel and Spike, who both looked incredibly guilty, "have been talking about you non-stop." She could tell that Lorne was going to want to say more, to get into the whole Angel/Buffy or Spike/Buffy thing, and she couldn't let that happen. At least not here… She had a hard enough time trying to keep the slayers from attacking Spike and Angel on the spot, and she really didn't fancy explaining her love life with the two vampires to a bunch of teenage girls. If they ever found out, she might never here the end of it. Not to mention the fact that they would probably loose all respect for her.

Angel, sensing that Buffy did not want to get into a whole explanation of their relationship jumped in before Lorne could say anything else, "Which is something we will all talk about later… not here."

"But Angelcakes… this is _the_ Buffy!" Lorne protested. He had heard so much about her and had waited so long to finally meet the woman who had stolen the two vampires hearts.

"I know who she is, but this isn't the time. We really need to get going… which… why are you here? I thought you were done with fighting evil." Angel asked Lorne

"I was… but lets just say I've had a change of heart after the whole "Hell A" incident. Lorne replied before turning to Buffy and asking "Was he this broody and grumpy when you first met him, or is that something that has developed over time?"

This time it was Spike who jumped in and saved her "As much as it kills me to admit it, Peaches here is right. We really should get going."

All of a sudden Illyria, who most everyone had forgotten about after all the hubbub, yelled "Wesley!" She too had been distracted by Connor and Lorne's appearance and had been busy studying her companions. It didn't take her very long to get bored by their dull repetitive natures and she had since moved on to scanning the area for things that she could fight. The shell had memories that told her that when its nighttime in Los Angeles there is always something around to do violence to. Instead of finding a demon or vampire, which she could rip to shreds, she had found something even better. Walking down the street accompanied by three others was Wesley. She hadn't seen him since that night of the battle in hell, and she hadn't been certain he would be alive when they got back. She was elated by the sight of him Seeing Wesley was _much_ better than doing violence.

"Wes?" Angel turned and asked. "Is that you?"

"It's me." He replied walking up to the group. "And before anyone asks… yes, I am very much alive." Both Angel and Spike could tell that he was alive and were very happy.

"Hello Buffy." Wesley said turning to his former slayer. "Faith, Willow, I am glad to see that you are all okay, And these must be some of the new slayers."

"You know what we are?" one of the girls asked surprised.

"Well I should hope he knows what we are," Faith told the girls with a grin. "He was me and B's watcher back in the day."

"I thought that Mr. Giles was your watcher?" One of the girls pointed out questioningly. They had all heard many of the stories from Sunnydale, but the parts about Angel and his friends had been conveniently left out along with the parts about Spike. Which meant that none of the girls had even heard of Wesley before, let alone known that he used to be a watcher. _Great! _ Buffy thought to herself,_ more long-winded explanations. Could this night get any more complicated!_

Buffy decided to keep it simple, "Mr. Giles was… is our watcher, but there were always more watchers to begin with, and when Faith was called the watchers council sent Wesley to help us. After Faith went into a coma and then went to prison we didn't need him anymore so he went off to help Angel here in L.A."

Wesley, Faith, Willow, and Angel knew that this was a complete lie, but they kept their mouths shut sensing that Buffy really didn't want to get into it right now. Gunn and Lorne were confused. They thought that Wesley had been fired by the watchers council, but one look from their friends told them to keep their mouths shut.

"Wesley, who are these people?" Buffy asked pointing to the three people beside him. "This is Nina." He said pointing to the blonde woman standing next to him, "She's a werewolf. This is Gwen." He said pointing to the brunette standing next to Nina, "and this is Groo. He's from Lorne's home dimension of Pylea."

"That's where you found Fred, right?" Willow asked him.

"Yes, that's where we were coming from when you…" Wesley stopped. He really didn't want to dredge up any painful memories. That was the night that Willow had come to tell Angel that Buffy had died. "that's where we found Fred." He recovered.

"Well I guess we won't have to send out a search party after all." Buffy said pleased. "This _is_ everyone, isn't it Angel?" Buffy asked him.

"Yes, This is everyone." He responded.

"Good" Buffy said. "Now we can go. As much as I've enjoyed catching up with everyone here, it's late, I'm tired, and we still have a lot to get through before we've taken care of everything." Buffy then Turned to look at Willow. "How soon can you have the portal ready."

"Portal?... PORTAL?" Spike asked "I'm not going through any bloody stinkin portal! I have had enough portals and magic for one lifetime, thank you!"

"It's not like we have a whole lot of options Spike." Buffy said exasperated. She really didn't want to have to deal with this right now. She hated portals more than anyone, and yet she had used one to come all the way here to save their asses and now Spike was refusing to use one to get back?!

"Who said we were going with you people anyway? In case you haven't noticed your girls here want to kill us pretty badly?' Spike asked her.

"Where else are you going to go Spike? You can't exactly go back to Wolfram and Hart, and its probably not even safe for you to stay in Los Angeles any more seeing as the senior partners are probably pissed that you guys broke out of hell. Besides Giles gave me strict orders to bring all of you back with me."

"GILES?" Spike asked angrily. "That ponce doesn't even trust us! He's the one who went off on us! He wouldn't even let us talk to Willow when poor Fred was having her soul destroyed by an old one!"

"He's got a point Buffy." Angel said calmly. "I'm pretty sure Giles doesn't want us around right now."

"Fred's soul was destroyed!?" Willow asked, clearly upset by what Spike had just told them. She was glaring at Spike and Angel now and was clearly not pleased. "You let that THING destroy Freds SOUL?!"

"It's not like we had a choice Willow." Angel told her. "We went to the deeper well to try to stop it, but the only way to save her would have killed millions of people." Willow looked guilty after she said this.

"oh" she said sheepishly. She felt bad knowing, by looking at her friends from Los Angeles, that she had brought up a very difficult topic. Clearly they were still bothered by what happened. "Buffy is right though..." she continued, "You guys don't really have a lot of options other than to come with us. You can't stay here in LA, it's just not safe."

"Willow and Buffy are right," Angel said with authority, "it's not safe here for us, and we don't have a lot of other options. We're going with them. All of us." He then turned to look at Spike, "and I don't want to here any more arguments about it."

"You're not the boss of me!" Spike said angrily

"Fine! I really don't care _what_ you do Spike! Stay here! See how long you last! The rest of you are coming with me!" Angel yelled. He was clearly getting irritated by all of the arguing.

"Give me one good reason why I should go with _you_." Gwen said calmly.

"You want to live? You want to stay out of hell? You've just spent months fighting Wolfram and Hart in hell, and you think that they're just going to let you walk away. You became a target the moment you started working with Connor! These are the people that can help you." Angel said gesturing towards the slayers. "If there is anyone in the world who can help keep us safe from the senior partners its them. You can stay if you want. No one is going to make you come, but if you do know that it is at your own risk, and next time we may not be able to come and save you." Angel turned and looked at Willow, "How soon can you have the portal ready?'

"Just give me a few minutes." Willow told him.

It didn't take Willow long to get the portal ready. The slayers we're all huddled in a corner whispering to one another about that nights events. Whatever they had been expecting to find here, this wasn't it. From what they had heard it sounded like these were the people responsible for sending Los Angeles to hell, and they weren't sure why Buffy wasn't killing them.

Connor was busy talking to Nina and Gwen, and seeing if they were all right. Lorne and Gunn were catching up on the events in hell, Lorne was fascinated by the fact the Gunn had been a vampire. Wesley was busy dealing with Illyria, trying to get her to agree to not only come with them, but to not kill anyone once they got there. It didn't take him long to get her to agree. She was just glad to see Wesley alive again. She would have gone anywhere with him. Faith was busy trying to convince Spike to come with them. It didn't take her long once she told him that Buffy had missed him. Angel was helping Buffy and Willow get the portal ready.

Once Willow had finished, she quickly reminded everyone the rules and then started helping the slayers through. Faith led the way, followed by all of the girls. Wesley, Lorne, Gunn and Illyria went next. Connor, Nina, Gwen, and Groo followed them. It hadn't taken Connor long to convince them to come with. Angel followed them with Buffy who before going through the portal asked, "You coming Spike?"

"Yeah," he said begrudgingly "I'm coming" and then followed them through the portal. Willow took one look behind her before she followed, as if to say good-bye to some unseen entity, and then followed the rest of the group through the portal closing it behind her.


	17. Through the Portal

Once they had all made it safely through the portal, and Buffy had once again regained control of her gag reflex, she looked up at her surroundings. They were in the surveillance room of the castle. The room had no windows, which was very good because while it had been the middle of the night in Los Angeles it was morning in Scotland, and Buffy didn't fancy going halfway across the world to save Angel and Spike just to have them burst into dust the moment they arrived. The stone walls of the room were covered in video screens, computers, and other high tech surveillance equipment. The room was quite large, but felt cramped because of the forty or so people no occupying it. Buffy could see Xander, Andrew, Robin, Dawn, and Giles all staring at her from across the room.

"SPIKE?!" Dawn yelled before running up to the blond vampire and hugging him. "I am so glad to see you!"

"Me to pet" he told her returning her embrace. Dawn pulled away from him, before punching him in the face. "Ow!" he said annoyed "That hurt!"

"Why didn't you call us? Why didn't you tell us you were okay? We thought you were dead!" Dawn yelled at him before turning towards Angel, who while Dawn had been yelling at Spike looked amused, but now looked terrified, and saying "and YOU! Why didn't you call us? WHAT were you THINKING! You can't pick up a PHONE!!"

"ENOUGH!" Buffy yelled, managing to scare the entire room into silence. "We'll have time to throw blame around later." She really just wanted to take a nice long bath and a nice long nap away from all of this chaos. "We have a lot that we have to get done here. I realize that those of you who have been on Los Angeles time are probably exhausted, so Xander here will show you to your rooms." Buffy told them while motioning across the room to her friend, who waved at them. She could tell that he wasn't very happy about all of this, but at least he was trying to behave for her sake, and for the sake of the humans. "Girls, you'll have the morning off, but I'll expect you to be back at training by this afternoon."

Buffy was about to walk over to the others and fill them in so that she could go and take her shower, when she remembered something important. "Oh, on more thing girls, you guys saw a lot of interesting things out there tonight, and met some new people, but I need you guys to keep it quiet for now. I don't want any of you to tell any of the other girls what you may have seen or heard tonight. For now, if they ask, just tell them that Los Angeles is back from hell and everyone seems to be all right. If I hear one word about Angel or Spike or even any of their friends I will personally make sure that you spend all of your time doing mess hall duty. Understand?" All of the girls mumbled a yes ma'am although she could tell in her eyes that they were not happy. The fact that there were vampires staying in their castle was big news, especially since it had been Buffy herself that had wanted to protect them. Even better though was that some of them were beginning to suspect that these people they had found in Los Angeles may have been involved in the city being sucked into hell in the first place.

Giles gave Buffy an evil look as she said this, but he understood. If any of the girls found out who Angel and Spike were, what they had done, and that they were here in the castle their lives would be at great risk. As much as Giles didn't trust the two vampires or their friends, they mattered a great deal to Buffy and while he may not always understand it, he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. So many things had tried to come between Buffy and either of the two vampires, but nothing thus far had succeeded. Giles wondered if anything ever would. Besides, even though they may not always be the most trustworthy creatures to walk the earth, both of them would make good allies in the upcoming battles.

The thirty or so new slayers slowly filed out of the room, leaving the others alone in the room together. Everyone except Buffy, Faith, Willow and Giles were still glaring at the new comers. Giles was still clearly unhappy with the idea of bringing these people back with them, but he was more concerned with Buffy now. He knew how hard this whole ordeal had been on her.

"You will have to tell them eventually you know." Giles told Buffy referring to the slayers. "You can't keep it a secret forever."

"I know" Buffy replied. "It's just we have so much to deal with right now, and I don't want to have to answer a million and one questions about who these people are, what they are doing here, and why they can't kill the vampires and demons."

"You're going to have to do it soon." Xander cut in. "News and gossip travel fast around this place, and two vampires, and two demons arriving tend to make headlines. Especially when they're not dead."

"I will Xander. Just not right now. Right now I just want to get down to business so that I can take a shower and a nice long nap." She responded.

"Um… I know this may sound like an odd question… but… Who are all you people? Where are we and what are we doing here… I mean its not that I don't appreciate being saved from hell and all, but I'm not exactly used to the idea of being kidnapped through a strange portal thing by a bunch of strange women." Connor asked timidly. "After all I just got used to the idea that vampires and demons existed before being sent to hell, and now this?"

"Its alright Connor" Angel told him. "These are old friends of mine."

"I wouldn't exactly call us friends." Xander said warningly.

"Enough Xander" Giles told him. "You're right though," Giles said to Connor. "I don't know everyone here either, and I think it would be best if we all knew what was going on before anything else happens. Also, for the safety of everyone involved I need to know who and what we are dealing with.


	18. First Day Back

"_I don't know everyone here either, and I think it would be best if we all knew what was going on before anything else happens. Also, for the safety of everyone involved I need to know who and what we are dealing with." Giles told them._

"But first I think we all could use some rest. It's been quite the ordeal… for ALL of us." He continued. "Xander, why don't you show all of the new people to the rooms in the south wing. I think there should be enough rooms that they can each have their own for now. Why don't we all plan on meeting in the mess hall around noon and I'll speak with all of you then. Angel, Wesley, I am going to need to speak with you both. Meet me in my office around 11:30."

Xander left with everyone from Los Angeles behind him. Giles, Buffy, Dawn, Faith, Andrew, and Wood stayed behind.

"Buffy, why don't you Faith and Willow go get cleaned up and get some rest. I'll need you to be in my office though at 11:30 so that we can talk about what we're going to do. The rest of you…" Giles said to Andrew, Dawn, and Wood, "are free till noon when we are all meeting in the mess hall. However I should warn you that you should keep to yourselves until we have the meeting at noon. A lot of the girls will be asking questions, and I'm not sure how we are going to answer those questions just yet. Also, please do not bother the people from Los Angeles. I know that you all are curious, but they just spent several months in hell and I don't think it would be very nice for you to bother them right now. I am directing this primarily at you Andrew. You can wait till later to go talk to Spike. Now I will see you all later."

Everyone then went off in their own directions without complaint. Buffy, who only minutes ago had been dying to get out of there, stopped to talk to Giles before leaving.

"What are we going to tell the girls about all of this?" she asked. "Do you want me to talk to them before this afternoon?"

"Right now, all I want is for you to get some rest. You look exhausted. I'll think of something to tell the girls… and before you even go there, I am not going to say anything that you wouldn't like. I still think that I did the right thing by keeping our distance from Angel when he was with Wolfram and Hart, but for now I think it is better if they all stay here with us."

"Thank you." She told him.

"Now go get some rest." He said.

After Buffy left to go get cleaned up and take her much needed nap Giles went back to his office. For the life of him he couldn't figure out what he was going to tell these girls about what happened in Los Angeles. The idea of telling them that their friends and family just spent three months or so in hell was not appealing. Worst of all was the idea of telling them that the people responsible for all of that pain and suffering were going to be staying in the same castle with them. At least some of those girls would be out for revenge. Then there was dealing with the idea of telling the girls about Angel and Spike. He could still remember what happened when Faith found out that Angel was alive, and he didn't want that happening again, and the odds were that it would happen again if they ever found out that he was responsible for sending all of Los Angeles to hell. Angel could handle himself, but up against an army of slayers he wouldn't stand a chance. Telling them about Spike would be an even bigger problem. Most of these girls had dreams about the lives of past slayers, and while no one had ever seen Angel in these dreams to his knowledge, almost all of them had seen Spike. They had seen what Spike had done to the Chinese slayer during the Boxer rebellion, and what Spike had done to Robin's mother. These girls were not going to like the idea of letting Spike live after all that let alone be okay with him living in the same building. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he was pretty sure that there was not much he could do to convince these girls not to kill Spike or Angel. Only Buffy and Faith were going to be able to do that.

"Maybe some of the girls who were with us in Sunnydale last year could help." Giles said to himself. "They learned to accept Spike, and fight by his side. Maybe the other girls would be more understanding if they heard it from some of their peers." Giles picked up the phone and began calling some of the girls. He also called Willow and told her to bring Kennedy with to the meeting. She agreed, but she didn't sound to happy about it.

A few hours later Giles, Willow, Buffy, Kennedy, Faith, Angel and Wesley were all sitting in Giles's office. Everyone still looked tired, but they looked a lot better than they had a few hours ago.

"I'm still getting used to the idea of being _alive_ again." Wesley told them. "Being a ghost for three months wasn't exactly a party.

"I'm still used to _not_ being alive anymore." Angel responded. "I was vampire a lot longer than I was in hell, and yet it still taking me a while to get readjusted."

"I know how both of you feel," Buffy told them. "When I came back from heaven there was a real adjustment period for me too… of course my body had been rotting in the ground for three months, and I had to claw my way out of my own grave, so that might have something to do with it."

"That's never fun." Angel said. "I don't remember much about when I crawled out of my grave. I just remember hearing everyone's heartbeats and being really hungry. If Darla hadn't been there…"

"Okay… While I'm sure that you two have a lot of catching up to do… as we all do, maybe you could save the 'crawling out of my grave' stories for later. We have a lot to get through before we meet with the others." Giles told them.

"What do you want to talk about?" Buffy asked them.

"Let's start with who everyone is." Giles responded and then looked at Angel and Wesley to step in.

"What do you want to know?" Angel asked him.

"I want to know who and what I am dealing with here. Are they Demons, vampires…?"

"Lorne is an empath demon. He is from another dimension. The Groosalug or Groo as we call him is from the same dimension as Lorne. In his dimension he is considered to be human, but I'm not sure what he is by your standards. Nina is a werewolf. Gunn is human. Gwen is human, but she can conduct electricity using her hands. Illyria is an old one wearing the body of Fred, one of our friends, and Connor is Angel's son, so we're not exactly sure _what_ he is. He's human, but he has all of the abilities of a vampire. That's about all we know." Wesley told them.

"What dimension are we talking about here?" Giles asked, curious to know more about Lorne and Groo."

"Pylea. It's a hell dimension of sorts. We visited it a few years ago after Cordelia accidentally got sucked into a portal. That's where we met Groo and Fred." Wesley explained.

"What happened to Cordelia? I know that she was working with you guys…" Giles asked.

"She died." Angel said

"She became a higher power one summer and when she came back she was possessed by an evil thing that used her to give birth to itself. That's part of why Willow had to come to Los Angeles to help us last year." Wesley explained.

"After that thing violated her it left her in a mystical coma which she never came out of." Angel finished.

"That sucks. Comas. Not fun. I should know." Faith added.

"We would've called, but it was made perfectly clear that you didn't care." Angel said.

"It's not that we didn't care… but that you couldn't be trusted. You joined up with Wolfram and Hart, joined the other side, and I hate to be blunt but its not the first time either." Giles explained.

"That was different. I didn't have a soul. You know that. Besides I had my reasons for going to Wolfram and Hart." Angel told him.

"How was I supposed to know whether or not you had a soul, not that that really matters anyway. I've seen plenty of people join the other side for a lot less than what they gave you. It wasn't just me that I had to think about either. We had an entire army of new slayers that were going to need as much help and protection as possible. I couldn't risk having a confrontation with Wolfram and Hart. As far as the reasoning behind your little transgression I'm still not clear on what that was." Giles explained.

"I did it to save Connor." Angel said.

"What?" Giles asked "Why?"

"I wasn't going to take their offer. They tried to get me to take it in return for information on the Sunnydale apocalypse. I told them that Buffy could handle herself." Angel said smiling at Buffy. "Then they showed me what Connor had done. A lot happened that year that you don't know about, that you won't even want to know about. Connor had finally lost it and was holding a bunch of people hostage at a store. He also had Cordelia with him. He was going to blow them all up if I didn't stop him, and there was nothing that I could do to help him. He had been through too much. Wolfram and Hart offered to alter reality so that Connor could have a normal life. No one would remember what really happened except for me. Connor would never know who we were. Who I was. He could have a new life, a better one. It's what he always wanted, so I made the deal. I worked for them, and Connor got to have the kind of life he always wanted. No more vampires, demons, or hell dimensions, just everyday life."

"I remember Connor. I remember everything that happened last year, or at least I think I do. What happened?" Faith asked

"I broke the spell, and everyone got their memories back. The old memories are mixed in with the new ones. If you think about what happened last year you'll know what I'm talking about." Wesley explained.

"Why did you do that?' Faith asked. "I remember what Connor was like last year. He was seriously troubled. The kid I saw today was nothing like that. Why isn't he all angsty?"

"He still has all his old memories. To Connor, he grew up as a well adjusted kid. All of the real memories are like one very long, detailed, nightmare." Wesley told them. "I didn't mean to bring everyone's memories back, and believe me when I tell you that most days I regret what I did, but I thought that by destroying the Orlon window I could bring Fred back. I had learned that Angel had altered reality, but I didn't know why. I would've done anything to save her."

"You loved her." Willow said

"Yes, I loved her." Wesley said. "I still do."

"Fred was a special woman" Willow told him. "She was one of the kindest people I ever met. What happened to her?"

"It's a long story." Wesley said avoiding the question. He knew that talking about it was going to bring up a lot of old memories that he was trying to suppress. He also knew that if they started talking about Fred it would lead to a big argument, and he wasn't sure that that was such a good idea right now. "…and I think Giles wants to get down to business."

"Well… yes… I do. I imagine you are all wondering why we have brought you here considering what you have been told by Andrew," Giles told them. "You've been brought here for two reasons. One is that it's not really all that safe for you anywhere else because Wolfram and Hart may still be after you. The other is that we need your help."

"That's ironic." Wesley said. "…because when we needed your help you wouldn't even hear us out."

"Yes, I do realize the irony behind all of this, and I realize that I am probably the last person that you want to be helping right now, so if you won't do it for me do it for the others," Giles told him.

"What exactly is it that you need our help with?" Angel asked Giles.

"Everything" Giles said. "We have an entire army of slayers, none of which have watchers of their own, and all of whom need to be trained. Without proper training they are sitting ducks. Worst of all though we have something called Twilight after us, and they have the entire United States Military behind them. They're goal is to take all of the magic out of the world in order to get rid of the slayer. They think that they are saving the day, but the reality is that without magic, this world wouldn't be able to exist."

"So in other words, this twilight wants to bring an end to the world?" Angel asked.

"You could say that." Giles explained. "He's been working with the military amongst other people in order to take out the slayers. They're primary target is, of course, Buffy. They know that she is responsible for what happened in Sunnydale, and they know that she is the leader. They figure that by taking her out, they can strip our army of its leader and through the other girls into chaos."

"So what is this Twilight thing?" Wesley asked. "I've never heard of it before, and when we were running Wolfram and Hart we knew of almost all of the major players in this dimension and others. They all had files in the archives."

"We're not sure," Buffy told them. "But I've faced him, and he's strong. He also seems to know me, as if I've seen him before. I have no idea who he is. I think he may be some sort of witch though because he can do magic, and fly like Willow. Will, do you know of anyone else who can do that?"

"I'm not sure… it's not like people go around wearing signs of their chests that say 'I can fly'. Obviously they would have to have a lot of power, but since we don't even know whether or not Twilight is human the list of possibilities is pretty long. For all we know, it could be Dracula." Willow explained.

"It's not." Buffy said. "He wouldn't have helped us in Japan if it was. Besides he's sort of the pro-magic type don't you think?"

"True" Willow said. "Besides I think that he likes Xander and he kind of has a thing for you too."

"ugh… don't remind me." She responded.

"You…. And Dracula?" Angel asked her.

"No!... Oh God NO! Nothing like that! She just meant that the last time he we saw him he was kind of… obsessed with me. He kept visiting me at night and trying to use his thrall. Needless to say it didn't work and I staked him… not that staking him really does any good."

"I wouldn't say that his thrall didn't work…" Willow said. "After all Buffy, You let him drink your blood."

"You WHAT?" Angel asked surprised.

"Oh please! It's not like it was the first time! I'm a vampire slayer. It's a hazard of the job." Buffy said exasperatedly.

"She said 'LET'" Angel pointed out.

"If by let you mean that when I was BRIEFLY under his thrall I didn't try to stop him… then yes, but other than that…"

"He got you to drink his blood too." Willow told them. Everyone looked at Buffy.

"Would you stop that!" She said to Willow. "You're REALLY not helping here. Okay, so I guess his thrall worked a little bit… but it's not like I didn't get over it. I learned to fight it off, and I haven't been under it since then."

"You drank his blood Buffy." Angel said. "You could have been turned."

"No. I didn't drink enough, and he didn't drink enough of mine. I didn't really drink it either… more like tasted. He kept trying to tell me that he was showing what a slayer really is, and I was kind of curious. Mostly though I did it in order to distract him. It was nothing. REALLY!"

"As fascinating as all of this is, we really have to get going. It's almost noon, and we have to meet with the others to go over all of this with them too. I just wanted to fill you in and make sure that you were willing to help us with all this." Giles said suddenly.

"I'm in" Angel told them. "I'm always up for saving the world."

"Good" Giles said. "Wesley?"

"I will help, but only if you are going to trust us and treat us like equals. I am not going to be anyone's servant to be pushed around. If we're going to be in on this, I want to really be in." He told them.

"Of course," Giles told them. "You are one of only a few remaining people who actually finished the watchers academy. I invited you and Angel to my office here because I want you two in on this."

"I'll work with Illyria, and see what I can learn about her if you want." Willow offered.

"I think that would be a great idea Willow. It would be best to learn as much about her as possible." Giles said.

"Thank You" Wesley told her. "Alright, I'll help. I can't speak for the others though. Lorne already wanted to go his own way before this whole ordeal, and Gunn probably won't be jumping up to help after what happened to Fred."

"Spike will help" Angel said.

"How do you…" Wesley asked.

"He likes to hit stuff." Angel explained. "Besides saving the world and getting another opportunity to impress Buffy… He'll help."

"Good. We're going to need as much help as possible. This is a lot bigger than some of the things we've faced before. We're talking about the well being of thousands of girls. We're talking about taking on what is probably the most powerful military in the entire world." Giles told them.

"We should get going." Faith said suddenly. "The others are going to be waiting for us."

"You're right. We should go." Giles said, and then proceeded to leave the office. The others followed him.


	19. In the Mess Hall

"I wonder what was so bloody important, that they couldn't share." Spike complained to Gunn and Lorne as the three of them walked down the hall of the castle together. Even though it was daytime outside you wouldn't have known it as there were know windows along this particular corridor. Originally the hallway would have been lit with real torches, but since Giles didn't think it was a good idea to have real fire in a castle filled with teenage girls they ordered plastic torches from a mail order catalog.

"I still can't figure out how the great poof got invited into the inner sanctum and we didn't." Spike continued. "I get why they wanted Wes, with him being a watcher and all, but Peaches? We know just as much about what went on in hell as those two. I feel down right insulted to be left out. Not like I haven't helped out before. Time was when it would have just been me, red, Giles, and the Slayer in their figuring things out. Now, not only do I get left out, but they left me out for the great poof!" Spike looked clearly upset by the fact that Angel had been invited to the meeting and he hadn't.

"I'm sure they have their reasons for not filling us in on what is going on." Gunn responded sarcastically. "I'm not all that sure I would've wanted to be invited anyway. I'm not sure that we can really trust theses people. Sure, Willow and Faith are here, but still its not like we _really_ know these people, and they sure seemed to make it pretty clear a few months ago that they didn't trust us." Gunn seemed to be thinking out loud rather than talking to anyone in particular. He knew very well why it was that Spike and Angel had trusted these people in the past, but that didn't mean that he had to be happy about it.

"You may not know these people Charlie-boy, but I do. These are the people who took care of me even when I didn't deserve it. Buffy gave me chance after chance, even after everything I did. Hell, they've even managed to forgive peaches, and he tried to suck the entire world into hell amongst other things." Spike suddenly became excited as he started to reminisce about his past experiences in Sunnydale. Whenever Spike got like this Gunn and Lorne knew that they were in for a long winded story about his adventures in Sunnydale. They were just glad that Angel wasn't around to join in. The stoic vampire always seemed to become chatty whenever Spike started in on one of their stories about their history on the hellmouth. "There was this one time when Angel wanted to know how to open the portal with the statue of Acathla, and he sent Dru after the humans while he distracted Buffy. Of course, she fell for it… and Dru bagged a slayer! Best of all she brought back the watcher and Angel tortured him for hours… I had really been hoping that Angel would get to that chainsaw that he kept talking about…"

"Uh Spike?" Lorne said

"Yeah" he responded.

"As much as I'm sure you enjoy reliving your escapades with Angelus, its way more than we need to know right now. As much as I love you guys, I'm still a little touchy on the subject of Angelus, especially after what happened last year." Lorne explained.

"I second that." Added Gunn.

"Wait! What do you mean 'what happened last year'?" Spike asked. He looked as if someone had just given him the best Christmas present ever, and Gunn and Lorne knew that they were going to be in BIG trouble with Angel once the older vampire found out what they had told Spike. "Are you actually saying that peaches went and lost that pesky soul of his a _second_ time? Why didn't I hear about this? What happened? Did Angel finally get it on with someone new? I never thought he'd actually be _that_ stupid! Wait till the slayer hears about this one! I wonder who the broad is that gave him his moment of perfect happiness. Who is this woman?" _Just wait till Buffy hears about this!_ Spike thought to himself. _Angel is never going to hear the end of it!_

"There is no woman Spike." Gunn said quickly.

"What?! Are you saying that…? Well there was that one time when we… and he… but that was a LONG time ago and we were both evil and really really drunk and we're still not sure what happened and…" Spike seemed to once again have gone into reminiscing mode, and seemed to be talking to himself. Lorne and Gunn suddenly became very uncomfortable with the topic of discussion though and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get Spike to shut up.

"Whoa! That is WAY too much information! I really don't EVER want to hear about ANYTHING like that EVER again! I merely meant that it wasn't a woman that made Angel loose his soul." Spike seemed extremely confused by this bit of information. The only way he knew of that would make Angel loose his soul was if he and Buffy… "We had a shaman come in and magically take it out." Gunn interrupted Spikes thought process. Spike looked at Gunn as if he was crazy. "It was Wes's idea." Gunn added quickly. He didn't know how Spike would feel about his Grandsire loosing his soul, but he did know that he didn't want Spike to get upset with him under any circumstances. "I'm not sure exactly how it worked… but it did." Gunn added.

"What the bloody hell did you go and do THAT for? Are you nuts?!" Spike exploded. "You could've gotten yourselves killed! You could've gotten everyone killed! I didn't go around agreeing to work with the slayer to stop Angelus just to have you wankers turn around and undo all my handiwork. What WERE you thinking?! Does Buffy know about this?" Spike asked.

"No! And we're going to keep it that way!" Gunn said quickly. He knew very well that Angel would be very upset if Buffy ever found out about what had happened last year. That year had been a bad year for all of them, but at leas the rest of them hadn't gone on a killing spree. "For now at least…" Gunn continued. "Willow warned us after she restored Angel's soul that if we liked being alive and not in extreme pain that maybe it would be better if we didn't tell Buffy, and since I like my face the way it is and don't fancy having it rearranged, we're not going to be doing any speaking of any kind about what happened last year. Understood?" Gunn looked at Spike. He knew that he was going to have a hard time convincing Spike to keep this bit of information from the Slayer as it exactly the kind of information Spike just loved to spout off about Angel in order to piss him off. Gunn just hoped that they could get Spike to keep his mouth shut long enough that he could give Angel advanced warning.

"You're not the boss of me! I'll tell whomever I want to tell! Lucky for you this is the kind of information that I'm going to put away for a rainy day. You never know when you're going to need information liked this to get the slayer really ticked off at Angel." Spike explained, as he opened the tall oak double doors to the mess hall.

The mess hall was a large room in the middle of the castle that had either once been a meeting hall or a church. No one from Sunnydale really knew for sure which. It had the stain glass windows of a church, however there were know other signs that it had been used as one. It was a large room with a tall vaulted ceiling held up by flying buttresses. The walls were all made of stone and the only windows in the room were high up and were covered with stained glass. Fortunately for Spike there weren't very many crosses on the windows and the stained glass did a good job of blocking out the sun. The large room was filled with dozens of large wooden tables that looked like really big picnic benches. Dawn, Robyn, Andrew, and Xander were already in the mess hall seated together at one of the tables in the front center of the room. Spike went right over to them and sat down next to Dawn. He wasn't particularly fond of Robyn or Xander, but he had a lot of catching up to do with the slayer's sister. He had heard some rumor that she had been a giant for a few weeks and he was wondering whether or not that was actually true. He also wanted to fill her in on his adventures at Wolfram and Hart. He had a feeling that she would enjoy some of the stories that he could tell, particularly one about a certain vampire turning into a 'wee little puppet man'.

After Spike went over to the table and sat down next to Dawn. Lorne and Gunn stood near the door to the mess hall awkwardly, feeling really out of place before Spike told them to sit down next to him. They did as he told them too. Spike quickly introduced the two men to the others at the table, and explained to everyone that Lorne was a good demon who can read your aura if you sing. Almost immediately Andrew asked if he could sing for Lorne and Lorne was about to explain that they might want to wait until later when Connor, Nina, and Gwen walked into the room.

The three of them came into the room walking sided by side. They seemed inseparable from one another as if using each other for protection from everyone else in the castle. This seemed odd to everyone except Spike, who knew just how hard it had been for the three of them in hell and how they had very much depended on one another for survival. Robyn, Andrew, Xander, Gunn and Lorne all eyed the three suspiciously as they walked across the room to the table next to where everyone else was seated. Dawn looked at Connor as if Orlando Bloom had just walked into the room. Spike however was the only one to notice this as everyone else's attentions were fixed on Connor, Gwen and Nina. _Oh no!_ thought Spike, as he watched Dawn's reaction to Angel's son. _The slayer is not going to be happy about this_! He quickly tried to regain her attention by continuing his story about his adventures with Angel, but she seemed more interested in watching Connor. Gwen and Nina had seated themselves next to Connor at the table next to the table where the others were seated. They seemed to be whispering to one another about something, and Xander and Robyn quickly launched into defensive mode. Neither of them knew what but there was something about those three that really irked them.

Little did they know, but Gwen, Connor, and Nina were just as suspicious of the others as the others were of them. Gwen and Nina kept asking what they were doing here and why they should trust these people. Connor didn't really have a good answer for them. He just knew that it really wasn't safe for them to be on their own when Wolfram and Hart might still be after them. He also knew that these people had saved them from Hell, and in his book that put them in the good column, at least temporarily. He knew that he had met two of them women that had found them in Los Angeles before in his previous life with Angel, but those memories were all muddled up with the fake ones and he wasn't sure exactly how or why he knew those women could be trusted, he just knew.

Xander, who had become fed up at this point with the suspicious behavior of the three people seated at the other table was about to make a comment about how they were whispering to one another when Giles, Wesley, Willow, Faith, Buffy, and Angel all walked into the room. Spike, who knew Xander fairly well and knew that he was about to make an inappropriate remark had been preparing to diffuse the situation when he saw the others walk in. Instead of sitting down at one of the tables like the others in the room the six newest arrivals remained standing at the front. It was as if they were all back in school and the teachers had just arrived to take them back to their classrooms.

"Okay" said Giles. "I believe we have some things that we need to discuss. Is everyone here?" He asked looking around the room.

"Illyria and that guy with the weird blue eyes aren't here yet." Spike told them.

"We're right here!" Groo said happily as he waved and smiled at everyone and made his way across the room with a very grouchy looking Illyria. "I apologize if we have offended anyone with our tardiness, but the torches with flame that does not burn were quite interesting. Neither I nor Illyria could figure out how they worked. It seems as if they were created by some magic." Everyone from Los Angeles who had known these two just rolled their eyes, while a few of the people from Sunnydale snickered. Illyria looked as if she was about to make a comment along the lines of "How dare you accuse me of being late! I am always on time as things start the moment I arrive!" Wesley noticed that she seemed irate and walked over to her bringing her back towards him and they stood next to each by the others. This seemed to soften Illyria and the others from Wolfram and Hart relaxed once they discovered that there wasn't going to be another outburst.

"Alright" said Giles in an authoritative manner. "Let's start by having everyone introduce themselves and tell us who they are, what they are doing here, and most importantly explain any sort of supernatural powers they posses that might be useful in the coming battle."

"Oooh! I'll start!" said Andrew raising his hand. Everyone in the room either rolled their eyes or glared at him.

"Go ahead." Giles said exasperatedly.

"Okay, so my name is Andrew….."


	20. Gossiping in the Courtyard

The new slayers had all arrived on time to training today out in the Courtyard. Every single one of the hundreds of girls staying at the castle were out there waiting, and talking about what could possibly be said by Mr. Giles. Not a single one of them wanted to miss what Buffy and Mr. Giles were going to have to say about what happened in Los Angeles. They were all incredibly curious, especially the girls who had gone with on the rescue mission. While the girls who had gone with had been warned not to say anything, they had been unable to keep their mouths completely shut. It hadn't taken long before there were rumors going around the castle that there were vampires in the castle, and that people had been killed during the mission. Soon every girl in the whole castle wanted to know what had happened. As the slayers poured out into the courtyard for training they were more talkative than usual. Each one of them speculating, and each on of them had their own theories as to what they were going to be told that afternoon. Some of the girls thought that they would be told everything that took place in Los Angeles, while others were convinced that there was going to be some big conspiracy to cover up what had occurred.

"Hey Sarah! Have you heard anything about what they're going to say tonight. I've been hearing all sorts of things. I even heard that there was a vampire that they brought back with them." One of the girls said to her friend.

"You're reading too much into this Julie. Why would they go and bring a vampire here? It makes no sense!" Sarah told her friend. "Why wouldn't they just stake any vampire they found?"

"They probably wanted to question it or something, and then they'll kill it." Another girl added as she walked up next to Sarah and Julie.

"Why would they do that, Caty? That would just be a bad idea. Vampires are evil; it would just lie about what happened anyway. Besides, they probably already know what happened, they just aren't saying anything yet." Julie explained.

"Why wouldn't they tell us what happened? I can't think of a good reason not too. If we knew what was going on, then maybe we could help." Sarah suggested.

"They don't need are help. They probably haven't told us so that we don't worry. Besides I heard it wasn't just any vampire that they found in Los Angeles." Said Caty "I heard it was a master vampire."

"Yeah, well I'm not sure I believe that." Julie told her friends. "First of all, why would they bring a master vampire back here? It's just not safe, and Second of all, the rumors around this place have blown this way out of proportion. I've had at least three different people name six different vampires that were brought back. It was like they were trying to name everyone from our vampire history class. Let's see… there was the Master, who's dead, Darla, also dead, Dracula, Kakistos again dead, Angelus, Drusilla, and Spike. I also heard something about Antonio Banderas, but I think that one was just wishful thinking. Also considering that Buffy herself has seen all but three of those vampires burst into dust right in front of her, I'm pretty sure that there has been a little exaggeration going on."

"I still don't think they'd bring a vampire of any kind back here to begin with. Mr. Giles made it perfectly clear that vampires are evil and are not to be trusted. He even said that there are some vampires out there who pretend to be good, so we have to be especially careful." Sarah explained. She had spent all of her time since being called as a Slayer with Mr. Giles in England until a few months ago when Los Angeles had disappeared. That was when all of the girls had been brought to the headquarters in Scotland along with their respective leaders. Since Mr. Giles was a former watcher he had been a good teacher for Sarah and her commerades. He had been careful to give them a detailed history of vampires making sure to include all of the important ones.

"I've heard about the "good vampires' too." Caty added. " Although Andrew explained it differently. He said there were vampires that had souls, and had actually helped them save the world before, but that they still couldn't be completely trusted because they were still vampires. Of course I didn't believe him, so when I got transferred to Chicago I asked Rona about these supposedly 'good vampires'. After all, I didn't want to accidentally stake one if they were going to help us save the world. She told me not to worry about it. She said that she only knew of one vampire with a soul, and that he had helped them stop the first and actually trained with them in Sunnydale, but that he had died saving the world." Unlike Sarah, Caty had been moved around a few times since becoming a slayer. She had started her training with Mr. Giles, but had been moved to Rome to work with Andrew when some trouble arouse in the ancient city. Soon after that Andrew had to leave to run an errand for Mr. Giles so a lot of his slayers had been transferred to other cities including Caty. She had been moved to Chicago to work with Rona, where she had stayed until they had all come to Scotland.

"I haven't heard anything along those lines. The only vampires that I've heard of are the evil kind. I didn't even here about the one from Sunnydale. Although the idea of Buffy or the otheres actually working _with_ a vampire seems preposterous to me. Especially since Robyn's mother was killed by a vampire." Julie told them. She had been living in Cleveland working with Robyn Wood and occasionally Faith, although they hardly ever saw Faith after she and Robyn broke up. Faith hardly ever said a word to any of the girls that she worked with and a couple of months ago had even left Cleveland altogether. Julie hadn't actually met Buffy or Mr. Giles until a few months ago when they had all been brought to Scotland. She didn't always like the way the elder slayer treated Robyn, but she still had great respect for her.

"Did Andrew or Rona ever give you the name of this 'good vampire'?" Sarah asked Caty.

"No, neither of them ever gave me any names no matter how much I begged. Although I seem to recall Rona making a comment along the lines of 'you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Caty explained.

"Oh guys! Shhhh! Here comes Mr. Giles!" Julie said excitedly. Every single one of the hundreds of girls in the courtyard turned to look over at the door to the castle as Mr. Giles and a few of the others paraded out into the Courtyard. Every girl held there breathes expectantly. They knew that they were in for an interesting time.


	21. The Long Walk to the Courtyard

"Well I thought that went rather well." Giles said to Buffy as they walked out towards the courtyard. The hallway they were walking down was the main central hallway between the outer edge of the castle where the mess hall was located, and the center where the courtyard was located. Both the mess hall and the courtyard were located on the ground level. Even though it was almost three o'clock you wouldn't have had any idea unless you had a clock because the halls of the castle were completely dark. There were no windows in the internal hallways only fake plastic torches hanging were real torches once hung. The hallways were made or stone and were somewhat musty. There was a long red carpet on the ground that started at one end of the hallway and ended at the door to the courtyard. The only two windows in the area were the two next to the courtyard door at the very end of the hallway and since they were stained glass windows they gave almost no light.

The Courtyard was in the middle of the castle, which is what made it so perfect for training. The slayers could train outside in the nice weather without having to worry about being seen, or even worse being attacked by an arm of zombies or something. Unless of course the zombies had gotten there because of magic, in which case it wasn't really going to help. That was part of what had made Amy's attack earlier in the year so surprising. No one had been expecting zombies to be able to get in.

"It certainly could have been a lot worse, that's for sure." Buffy responded. "At least nobody tried to kill anyone. I just hope the same will be true once we tell the girls what is going on." At the meeting there had been a discussion about just how much information to disclose to the new slayers. Buffy had argued long and hard to keep most off the facts in the dark, and many of the others had agreed with her, while Robin Wood, Connor, and Xander had all argued that the girls should be told everything. Including many of the negative and unnecessary facts about some of the members of the group, although Connor was mostly just against the idea of lying to these girls. Eventually they had come to the consensus that it would be best to tell the truth, but to give out information on a need to know basis. Xander and Robin promised to keep their mouths shut about what really happened in Los Angeles, while Buffy and the others had agreed that they would tell the girls exactly what Angel, Spike, Lorne, Nina, Gwen, and Groo were and exactly what makes them so powerful and important. It's not that Buffy and some of the others wanted to lie to the girls, it was more that they were worried about how these girls would react to the more damning facts in some of their friends pasts. Eventually though, even they had to agree that for the purposes of safety alone it was important for these girls to know who they would be dealing with over the next few months.

"These girls are a lot more understanding than you give them credit for. Remember that unlike some of the others we've encountered in the past, that they haven't been brought up with the natural prejudices some people have. They only know what we've told them about this world, and it's all very new to them." Giles explained. "Besides I think they've done remarkably well thus far." Giles had seen the way that Robin and Xander had reacted to some of the people from Los Angeles. Even he himself was not entirely sure just how trustworthy some of these people were. He wasn't even completely sure that he trusted Angel and Spike, however their explanations of what happened in Los Angeles had cleared up a good portion of his doubts.

"Yeah, well up until now it's been pretty much demons bad people good which is a pretty simple mentality to follow. Things always get a lot more confusing once you start seeing the grey area in things. I'm not sure they're ready for that yet." Buffy told him. She had seen one too many people try and take the black and white approach to slaying, and it had almost always led down a dark path. Even her own boyfriend had gone down that road, and had almost dragged her down it too, but fortunately she was able to see reason in time to keep from going down that road with Riley.

"The grey area is always there whether they know it or not, Buffy. Isn't it better that they are aware of it so that they can prepare for it and understand it. These are smart girls. I don't think you give them enough credit. After all, you adjusted just fine to learning about these sorts of things. You never were one to go along with the councils orders." Giles told her.

"Giles, Things were a little different in my case." Buffy responded.

"Where they?" he asked her. "Where they really all that different? You never seemed to have any problems seeing the good in people. Look at the people you surrounded yourself with: Angel, Oz, even Faith. They all had they're dark side and yet you accepted them and tried to help them whenever you could."

"Oz was our friend before he became a werewolf, and Faith was a fellow slayer, The ONLY other slayer in the whole world. How could I possibly give up on her when everything that happened to her could just as easily happened to me?"

"Don't sell yourself short Buffy." Said Giles. " There are plenty of people I know who would have just lumped them into the 'evil' category and been done with it."

"That's exactly my point." Buffy explained. " How do we know that these girls won't have the same idea? They may have accepted Faith, but most of them don't even have any idea just how bad things were back in Sunnydale. It's not necessary for their survival to depend on demons because they have one another. In many ways I was forced to rely on Angel and then Spike back in Sunnydale because they were the only other people who were as strong as me. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything that you, Willow, and Xander were able to do for me, but lets face it, you guys weren't always able to keep up."

"I understand that Buffy, believe me, I do. Why do you think I allowed Spike and Angel to stick around as long as they did? I could see that they were a great asset to you as long as they remained loyal to you. However, as soon as their loyalties were in question they were a danger, not just to you, but also to all of us, which is why I did not always trust them. However, even if you were not dependent on them for their help, I still believe that you would have been able to see them in a better light than many people. It's not just that you allowed them to continue their existence, but you loved them. You loved beings that most would have hated the moment that they learned of their true nature. Faith also learned to trust and appreciate them. After all it was Angel that brought her back from the darkness." Giles explained.

"I guess that's true, but it took Faith a while to learn to trust both Spike and Angel, and I'm not sure that we have time to play games here. We need EVERYONE united against this coming evil, and any sort of disagreement over who is or is not on our team could lead to people getting hurt, or even killed. I'm still not sure that telling them everything is the best way to go about this." Buffy told him.

"They'd find out eventually, Buffy, and in the meantime you would loose their trust by lying too them. I wouldn't worry too much about this. I don't think there is going to be a problem. Unless you're worried about something else?" Giles asked her. "Are you worried about what the girls are going to think of you? Because you shouldn't be. They look up to you Buffy, and for good reason too. You have nothing to be ashamed of. If there was anything that I learned in my tenure on the Hellmouth it's that love is truly blind."

"Thanks Giles." Buffy said. "I know that I worry too much its just, I care about them. All of them. Angel, Spike, the girls, hell even their friends. Even Faith! I'm just so worried that something will go wrong and someone will get hurt, and it'll be all my fault."

"Believe me Buffy. Everything is going to be fine." Giles said as he opened the large wooden door, and they stepped out into the sun soaked courtyard.


	22. Fitting In

"I think that went pretty well." Faith said to Robyn Wood as they walked back to their rooms. They had just been to the meeting that Buffy and Giles had held out in the courtyard to discuss their newest arrivals. " I mean about as well as any meeting where you introduce a bunch of vampires and demons to a bunch of slayers. At least nobody got killed."

"It went about as well as could be expected." Robyn agreed. Most of the girls had been just fine with the idea of working with the people from Los Angeles. Some of them had even voiced excitement about getting to work with real "master" vampires. Of course there had been some girls who were unhappy as well

"I'm just glad B layed down the law with them. I wouldn't want anyone getting hurt."

"I highly doubt any of the girls would be so rash as to pull the same kind of stunt I pulled last year. They know better than to pick fights with creatures stronger with them, especially creatures under the protection of Buffy. They look up to her. She is their leader. They'll do what she says," added Robyn. He had mellowed a lot over the past year working with Buffy and the others. He had seen many knew things, and had even been forced to except that things weren't always black and white. He would never really forgive Spike for killing his mother, but that didn't mean that he was going to hold it against every other supernatural being that he encountered. He wasn't particularly fond of Angel for obvious reasons, but he had noticed the tall vampires leadership skills and figured that he would probably be a useful vampire to have around. Also, spending so much time with Faith he had heard everything that Angel had done for her. Robyn had been one of the people to help her when Angel and the others had been sucked into hell. He was even willing to work with Spike, as long as Spike continued to behave himself.

"Well if anyone tries to hurt them, I will personally see to it that that person spends the next few years of their lives in pain, and if anyone actually succeeded in harming one of them…"

"It's not going to come to that Faith." Robyn cut her off before she could finish her thoughts. He knew that she was somewhat concerned about two vampires and a few demons living with hundreds of slayers, but he also knew that she was worrying needlessly. Most importantly he didn't want Faith to go down that road. He knew about her past as a murderer and he knew that if t something were to happen to her friends it would be too easy for her to slip back into her old ways.

"I know. I just hope that this works out for the best." She told him.

"It will. Don't worry. Now get some rest." He told her.

For the next few weeks at "slayer central" everything did work okay. While some of the girls were apprehensive about working with the people from Los Angeles, that quickly dissipated once they got to know them. Gunn, Connor, Groo, Spike, and Angel all helped Buffy and Faith lead training sessions with the girls and they instantly took a liking to them. It was safe to say that not only were these girls impressed by each of the new comers ability to hold their own in battle, but they each had a crush on at least one of them. Illyria spent most of her time with Willow so that Willow could help her. After Willow had explained that she wasn't trying to kill her, but rather separate her from Fred Illyria was mostly compliant. Besides, she was fascinated by the power that the wicca wielded. Nina and Gwen spent most of their time by themselves simply because they didn't really know anyone. Eventually Connor and Gunn got the Gwen to start coming to some of the training sessions, and Nina began to spend her time with Dawn, Lorne, and Wesley working in the research and recon departments. Lorne was an instant hit with many of the girls because of his vocal and musical talents, and he also was useful working recon in reading the auras of some of their less trustworthy contacts. Wesley of course spent almost all of his time with Giles researching the up coming prophecies and such. He also helped train some of the new watchers so that they would be ready to into the field with the girls. Angel and Spike were particularly useful during training because of their vampiric nature. There is no substitute for fighting real vampires, and needless to say when Angel and Spike each took on ten slayers during training and kicked their asses the girls were impressed. However the biggest impact they had was when they put on a demonstration for the girls. Angel paired up with Buffy, and Spike with Faith for sparring partners, and they demonstrated how a real fight should look to the class. Many of the girls said after that watching those four spar was like poetry in motion each one matching the other blow for blow. It didn't take long for the girls to actually get excited about going to training.


	23. Spike

I don't know why I didn't listen to peaches. He warned me this could happen. I guess I didn't want to believe the great poof at the time. Now I do. Now I believe him, but now is too late. It's not like we had all that much time to make a decision. The twerp had been working recon with some of the girls in the tech room. Not that I really trust him, or that blasted technology that they rely upon, but this time they actually came up with something useful, or rather they had something useful thrown at them. It was a message. Not even a really long message, but a scary message, a message that would change things around here. The message was really simple. It stated that Twilight, stupid git, was going to attack some part of London. The scary part however wasn't that there was going to be an attack, but rather the focus of the attack. People. Stupid, bloody, unaware, civilians, who are so busy trying to deny that the scary parts of the world exist, that they actually put themselves in more danger than if they just accepted them. You know, it used to be in the good old days that everyone knew about the existence of vampires, and magic. It was just accepted knowledge and if you ask me the world was better off for it. Instead they now have all this technological crap. Completely bloody useless I'll say. Couldn't catch a fly, let alone a vampire. Well bugger that. I've had enough. Anyway Buffy wanted to stop Twilights attack. Giles wanted to do research. I had to go with the slayer on this one. I never really was one for the books and besides I hadn't had a good brawl in a while. Not since we got out of hell anyway. Buffy was rushing it though. She had this half cocked plan that pretty much involved taking every girl we had all the way over to London in order to stop this twilight bloke. That was the part I was having trouble with. It just didn't feel right going all the way down there guns ablazing. Peaches told her that we should at least leave a few girls behind, you know, to hold down the fort. She would here none of it. She got it into her head that this Twilight guy was pretty much unstoppable, and that it would take everyone to bring him down. For her this wasn't just some protect the innocents deal, this was it. This was the big battle to bring down the bad guy. It all seemed so simple. Too simple, but I didn't want to get involved. After peaches suggested that they leave at least enough girls behind to guard the castle in an attack she practically bit his head off with some rant about how this wasn't L.A. and she was the leader here. Oh! And just because she slept with him once didn't give him the right to order her around. Well I'm no bloody idiot. I could see that she was in a bloody mood about all this and I let it be. It was my chance to finally get into the good graces of the slayer and maybe give peaches a run for his money. I may not really ever have a shot with her, but that doesn't mean I have to make it easy for the competition. Somewhere, deep down, I know that the great poof was right though, and I wish that I had spoken up. What I wouldn't give to go back and say "Angel's right!"

Oh well! Can't change the past, why bother dwelling on things you can't change. That's the other difference between me and the poof that nobody ever seems to notice. Dwelling on the past is all Angel does. Bloody git! Practically drives the poor bloke insane, and sure as hell makes him unpleasant to live with! Not to mention driving everyone else around him starking nuts while he's at it. Why can't he just let it go? I'll never understand peaches constant need for self flagilation. Me, I just don't dwell on the past that much. Well, at least now that I'm not in the basement of a certain high school being tortured by the first evil. Which if I ever get my hands on that stupid broad I will make sure she feels the true wrath of William the Bloody. Soul bedamned!

The point is that while there is a lot in the past I wish I could fix, including the other day, I realize there isn't anything I can do about it and let it go, unlike a certain vampire, who by the way is completely different from me, and is as dull as a lampshade.

Anyway peaches, who is a bloody moron by the way (did I mention that!) decided to accuse the slayer head on of leading everyone into a trap. He used that oh so brilliant argument of "Angelus would have done it!" Ha! Because rubbing her face in it how you got her to fall for a bloody trap is the way to win her over. Way I figured was, maybe I could win her over for myself considering how peaches seemed determined to drive her away. I was a bloody fool.

Peaches was right in the end. It was a trap. Unfortunately nobody listened to him in the end. Not after I took the slayers side. Nope. Me, the slayer, and almost every girl living in the compound took off for London. Buffy agreed to leave the few girls working recon behind, and put Satsu and Xander in charge. Everyone from Los Angeles stayed 'cept me of course, stayed behind as well. I don't think there comfortable with the scoobies just yet.

Apparently it wasn't long after we left that the attacks started. They were small at first, luring small squadrons of girls out into the courtyard. Xander didn't realize until too late that they were surrounded. Way I heard it peaches was the only reason the whole place wasn't obliterated. He managed to mobilize everyone left behind and fend off the attacks until we could get back. As it turns out it was a trap, and the decoy worked perfectly. I guess this Twilight bloke knows the slayer almost as well as Angelus. Makes you wonder who he is.

In the end though, thank to peaches quick thinking, the losses were minimal. We only lost ten or so girls. Of course Buffy blames herself for all of it. When she came back from London with us she wouldn't even look Peaches or Giles in the eye. She just went straight to her room and didn't come out for two days straight. Peaches was the one who finally got her to come out. He was sick and tired of waiting for her to stop moping and went and locked himself in her room. I didn't dare go talk to her. I was too afraid I'd say something stupid. I knew she'd claim it was all her fault, and it's not, but there were a few times when I began to doubt that. Not peaches though. He never blamed her. I'm not sure what exactly he said in there, but whatever he said, when she finally did come back out she was her old self again… well at least until the second attack.

See what made this whole thing so nasty wasn't the fact that Buffy fell for an easily avoidable trap, no, anyone could have made that mistake. No, the scary part was when a group of vampires attacked the girls while they were working out in the courtyard. There were at least ten vampires, and while only three of the vampires made it out alive at least ten more of our girls were killed. But that still isn't the worst part. The worst part was their leader. A vampire so powerful she killed three slayers in the time it took Buffy to slay just one vampire. She was so merciless she made Angelus look like a fluffy bunny. She was strong enough that it took me, Peaches, and the slayer just to slow her down, and when we finally had an opening. Buffy finally had a chance to steak her, and keep this dangerous monstrosity from getting out alive, she hesitated. She hesitated. That girl was just a fledge. I can't imagine how powerful she'd be in a few years, let alone a decade. Buffy hesitated and now one of the most powerful vampires born in the past century is now once again free to go out and kill some more. All because Buffy couldn't kill her girlfriend! I mean I know how hard it is to have to kill someone that you once cared about, but that woman was dangerous! And I don't even think we've seen the worst of her. She is far greater a threat than Drusilla, and yet she walked because she and Buffy once had a thing. I tried to knock some sense into the slayer afterwards but Peaches would have none of it. He nearly staked me on the spot when I even suggested that the slayer had done something wrong. I guess that's for the best. She was real messed up after everyone cooled down. Went and locked herself back in her room again. Even went and told Giles that she quit. I guess she didn't know that her girlfriend had been turned. Peaches told me after that she hadn't even noticed the girl was missing. When I heard that I knew that Buffy was tearing herself up inside. I knew better than anyone that that woman, Buffy, was more important to this world than anyone else and if we let her kill herself (figuratively speaking of course), then we'd be doing the world a great disfavor. I finally got up the courage to go talk to her, and I'm glad I did. Seems I reinforced everything peaches had already said, and she seemed to be much better after I spoke with her. Everything would be just fine if the bloody twerps had managed to keep their mouths shut. I don't know how she puts up with those morons. The way they treat her I just… ugh!... bloody morons!! They don't understand. They don't even appreciate everything that she's given up. They have no IDEA how hard it is to make the tough choices. I did it for a while back in Sunnydale, and let me tell you it was no walk in the park. I guess that's why I always let Peaches lead when he was around. They have no idea how good they've got it, and yet they just poured on the blame. One of the newer girls even went so far as to suggest that somebody else lead them. I think that's when peaches finally snapped. He let into them alright, he let them have it. I'm so glad I was not on the receiving end of THAT lecture. I can't imagine how he'd get if Buffy ever told him about what happened last year in Sunnydale when they kicked her out. I'm pretty sure he'd start killing again. Soul be damned! Peaches was livid. You know how he gets when he's all speechy and angry. It's like listening to one of those religious fanatics give a speech on why you should join them. It's both irritating and compelling. Let's just say I'm glad that's over with. This time I wasn't a complete bloody moron. I spoke up for the slayer right along with peaches, which of course made anyone who knows us immediately take our side. We don't ever agree on anything! The slayer went from looking like someone had trampled her into the ground, to looking like a true leader. She started to get some of her confidence back even all because someone finally spoke up for her. She realized that while she may surround herself with some backstabbing morons, she also had some people who really truly cared about her, and were willing to put everything on the line to protect her. I think she finally gets it. I even thought she was ready to finally come into her own and take the lead, until she told me of her deal with peaches. I guess its for the best in the end, though I don't see the point. Basically she wants him to be her number two. She's going to tell him what the problem is and then he'll tell her what has to be done. Then all she has to do is start handing out orders. It's not that it's a bad idea, it's just that means that she still has no confidence in herself. And she's gonna need all the confidence she can get if she's gonna take out this Satsu chick…


	24. A Descision

She had found it. She had finally found it. She had finally found the nest of vampires working for Twilight, the vamps that had attacked their home, the vamps that had killed some of the girls. They were going to pay. She wasn't going to let them get away with what they had done to her and her friends. She had finally, FINALLY started to open up, and get to know some of the girls in her charge. Angel had seen to that. He had told her that she needed to open up or else it wouldn't matter anymore. She wouldn't have anyone to fight for anymore. She listened. Those girls hadn't just been working for her. They weren't just allies or her soldiers, they were her friends and these bastards had murdered them. They had even captured and tortured some of them and then left their cold dead bloodied bodies on the front stoop of her door. They had killed Satsu, for fun, to get to her. They had turned her into a vampire and left her as a welcoming gift along with the battered bodies of the other girls. It had been one of Buffy's worse nightmares since they had activated these girls, having to fight one of the girls who had been turned into a vampire. She couldn't do it. She couldn't dust Satsu that night. It just felt wrong. Satsu had been dangerous to. She'd had the strength and speed of a master vampire, yet she was only a fledgling. Buffy couldn't imagine what Satsu would be like in a hundred years. Yet, she still couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to shove that piece of wood into her former lover's heart. Only Angel and Spike had understood. Only they had known why it was so hard to do that for her. Giles and Xander had ridiculed her for it, and everyone else had just looked at her with pity silently asking themselves if she was strong enough to be their leader. Angel and Spike had stood up for her, had yelled at the others and told them to leave her alone. They reminded everyone that Buffy was in charge, she was their leader, and that she was the best person for the job. Buffy wasn't so sure herself anymore if she was the best person for the job. If she had been a good leader, a strong leader she would have been able to do what was necessary and instead she had let a very dangerous vampire escape. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen again.

Now was her chance. As soon as she had found the nest she had called Willow to let her know what she had discovered. They were seriously outnumbered. There had to be at least fifty vampires in that cavern and there were fourteen other slayers with her on patrol. The girl whom she had sent into the cavern as a scout, Amy was her name, had told them that the vampires were on the move. They were only going to be in the cavern for a few more minutes. Willow had told Buffy that she needed to give her a few more minutes to get everything ready and then transport everyone to the cavern. Buffy knew that it was smarter to wait for Willow, but if she did then the vampires might get away. The vampires who had caused her so much pain would get away and they would go back to Twilight. Twilight, who was trying to end the world. She couldn't let them get away. She couldn't let them get back to Twilight. This was there chance. There chance to put a hitch in the bad guys plan and she wasn't going to blow it. Screw waiting. Screw playing it safe. Sometimes you just have to take the risk. Sometimes you have to sacrifice everything just to save the day and she was going to do just that. If Willow got here in time to bail them out, good for them, but she wasn't going to risk letting these vampires get away. After all, they were slayers and these were just a few measly vampires. Nothing compared to the army of Turok Han they had faced last spring. Yes, she was going to do it. They were going in and that was final. They would be fine. Right?


End file.
